North Star Rising
by wild spanish eyes
Summary: Bella and Edward are busy planning for eternity, but the ripples of Laurent's final struggle have not yet settled and the Cullens are about to discover how much one moment in time can alter their fragile piece of perfection. My version of BD.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: They all exist in Stephanie Meyer's world and in her head. I claim nothing. I have no power there, but most of them are welcome in my head any time, and Edward can have my soul whenever he wants it...**

**A/N: This was posted previously for a total of about three days. It is a product of my impatience. I couldn't wait for Breaking Dawn. It was respectfully removed due to some similarities to Mrs. Meyer's fourth, but it has been reoutlined and replotted since then, and I am going to run the risk of reposting...hope it doesn't disappoint!**

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**Preface:**

It was all suddenly so surreal. The pain…the panic…my life…everything had become so trivial in one fated moment. I stared into his beautiful eyes—now so full of desperation as he clung to me, listening to my heart play out its final cadence.

Life can be so well ordered…so controlled that it carries the illusion of indestructibility. That illusion had been his gift to me as we'd toyed with tempting fate and planning for immortality.

The best laid plans…

I was vaguely aware that there should have been pain, and that the absence of it meant something much more final than I had ever imagined, but my mind would not allow for mourning. There was only the bright light of his angel face, and the fleeting indescribable memories of the eternity that would have been.

I smiled as my eyes grew tired. I had long ago embraced the darkness. Now, it was the light that called me home.


	2. Communication

This was definitely _not_ my happy place.

I was in the perfect little meadow—our meadow. The wildflowers were all around me, each singing their own fragrant song that somehow didn't even come close to the aromatic perfection of the pale boy at my side. I sighed, taking in his flawless white skin once more. Then the sun escaped from behind the sparse cloud cover again, and his skin suddenly gleamed with a million pinpoints of light. I wondered silently if I would still be rendered so breathless by this sight in a few weeks. I hoped so with all my heart.

The day was oddly warm. The clouds had graciously parted, allowing the sun a vain attempt to take back some of the moisture that fell on the Olympic Peninsula almost without ceasing. The meadow had taken on a happy yellow green, as opposed to the permanent dark tinges that seemed to cover everything else in our tiny corner of the world. The scene had all of the elements to become my happy place, but the perfect surroundings weren't enough today. Today, Edward had other things in mind.

The dreaded conversation.

He had been building it up for days now, insisting that if I was willing to risk my soul to be with him, then he needed to be absolutely sure that I understood every harsh reality that it entailed. I had agreed, of course—who could disagree with a vampire when they truly wanted something—but under the condition that it occur in the place where he had first revealed to me his true nature. The meadow had, more often than not, been my happy place, and I was sure that I could fight off all of his attempts to change my mind if I was in my own territory.

Big mistake. In my dread of the impossibility of a battle of wills with someone who had been getting what he wanted for a century, I had forgotten that the meadow was over five miles into untamed wilderness without even the benefit of a trail. Whatever battle I had been preparing to give was lost immediately as I clung like an idiot to his icy neck, feeling the trees pass by us at frightening speed, and praying that I would at least be able to let him go without help when the run finally ended. So much for a dignified front.

His smooth, unnecessary breath brought me back. He had been brooding, no doubt contemplating how to begin. His furrowed brow caused my lips to twitch into a sympathetic smile. I was determined. This was one day that his beauty and charm would not prevail. I looked away in preparation, absolutely certain that one look into his caramel eyes would devastate my argument.

His first words caught me off guard. "I'm not going to attempt to convince you to wait any longer," he said gravely. I looked up at him in surprise. His expression was regretful, but gentle. "You are capable of making your own decisions now. Your intuition is one of the features I find most appealing in you, and I must learn to trust it." His mouth turned up in a playful smirk. "And, after all, you are an adult now."

"Ugh! Don't remind me," I moaned, falling back a little too hard into the grass. The back of my head hit a bare patch of ground with a resonating thump. Edward was there even before the dull throbbing began, curling his fingers into my hair, looking for a sign of injury.

"Are you alright?" he asked with a slight smile. I rolled my eyes. My clumsy mistakes were a daily occurrence…possibly even an hourly one.

"I think I like where this conversation is going," I said. "Continue."

His lips thinned. "I asked to be prepared to be completely honest with me today, and to think of anything about the next few…months…" he said the last word through clenched teeth. "that might being worrying you. Did you?"

I nodded.

He suddenly looked nervous. The expression did not seem natural. No one as beautiful as him should ever have to be nervous. "And?" he asked.

I hesitated. I _had_ been thinking about the things that worried me the most. Most of my preoccupations had already been discussed to some point—the pain of the transformation…the inevitable lust for blood…my inability to be anywhere near my friends or family. Edward knew all of these things. But then there were my own tiny, shallow fears, and these were what he was asking for today.

"You first," I insisted.

He exhaled forcefully. There was a moment of silence as he contemplated his thoughts, and then continued. "Of course I'm afraid that you haven't lived long enough to understand the enormity of the sacrifice you're making."

"Not negotiable," I replied quickly. "Move on."

He glared at me, but obeyed. "And there is the question of the loss of your soul…"

"Also not an arguable point," I pushed. "We've agreed to disagree on that."

"Bella, you are truly the most frustrating person I have ever met!" His eyes smoldered, and I struggled to maintain my stubborn glare in the wake of such dark beauty. After a moment that seemed like so much longer, he continued, nervous again.

"I am struggling to admit this," and I could tell that he truly was. "The way you look at me, Bella—the way you can't turn away, and the way that sometimes I am absolutely certain that I have you in a trance. My scent…my voice…my ability to…dazzle you…"

I smiled at him. I was dazzled now.

"They're all a part of being…what I am. I'm designed to lure you in and take your life. But what attracts you to me so strongly now could simply be the weapons that I possess to feed." I frowned. I could tell where this was heading.

"This is a first for me. I don't know what to expect any more than you do. What will happen if the desire you have to become what I am disappears when my natural…gifts…lose their effect on you? What will you do if you discover that the choice you've made was based on nothing more than a chemical reaction, and you suddenly find yourself faced with an eternity based on nothing more than the deception of hormones?"

I stared at him, shocked. I was able to understand to a point the struggle inside him between the lust for my blood, and the need to keep me safe, but I had been so convinced that his reluctance to turn me had been due to a lack of attraction on his part that I had not even begun to consider that he may be worried about _my_ attraction in the future for _him_. I found myself laughing, great bursts of freeing laughter. He looked at me confused and almost hurt. His radiance stopped the laughter in my lungs.

"To use your words, you're utterly absurd!" I replied. His expression did not change. I took his hand and marveled at its cold beauty. "You think that I'm only attracted to your scent? To your beauty? Edward, I've told you this before…or I told Jessica knowing that you were listening, which is the same thing. Everything that I love the most about you is _behind_ your…gifts, as you call them. All of your quirks and conflicts…all of your imperfections…the things that don't change."

He grinned fascinated. "Imperfections?"

"Yeah," I continued. "Your tendency to overreact, for example."

"Overreact?" His smirk was painfully enticing.

"Really, Edward! _Four-thousand pounds_ of body armor? _Missile_-proof glass?"

He chuckled lightly. "I see your point." Then his expression turned serious again. "Your turn."

I sighed. My worries seemed so poorly thought out after his sweet soliloquy. "Well," I began. "Speaking of being attracted to scent."

His eyebrows lowered. "Yes?" he said gloomily.

"I was thinking about the way you react to _me_. About how you are always fighting against the smell of my blood." I paused, gauging his reaction. He continued to glower.

"Go on."

"I was thinking that maybe you stay around me—only partly, I mean—because you think that you deserve to suffer like that…and maybe when I'm like you, and my blood doesn't smell as…"

"Irresistible?" he suggested.

"Yes," I continued, struggling to make my thoughts as eloquent as his were. "And when I'm not quite as…breakable…that maybe you won't be as…drawn to me as you are now."

His reaction was the exact same as mine had been. There was a moment to think of what had just been said, and then musical gales of laughter as he pulled me to his chest in a swift, natural gesture.

"Beautiful Bella," he began, a radiant smile lighting up his perfect face. "You think I keep you near me to create my own personal _purgatory_!" And spoken like that, in his incredulous tone, it sounded completely idiotic. I grinned helplessly, but his face had turned contemplative. "You'll understand this when you…later, but my desire for your blood…it's painful every second. I do not bear that pain as a penance for my past, but only out of the greatest desire to be as close as I can to you."

He kissed my hair and breathed in the scent of it. I felt the chills begin in my spine. "I'll miss the beat of your heart, and the stunning blush of your cheeks, but the selfish part of me is waiting for the day when I can kiss you passionately without worrying about controlling my instinct to drink your blood."

We held each other in silence for a few moments, him, no doubt savoring the warmth of my skin against his, and me reveling in the last image he had left in my mind…kissing him passionately without restraints. My stomach was still tight when he pushed me gently away and held me at arms length, staring seriously into my eyes.

"Is there anything else?" he asked, looking at me as if he were trying to pick my thoughts out of my head. Good luck.

"Not that we haven't already discussed," I reassured him. He seemed satisfied. He let me go, and I moved to his side once again. It was clear by the look on his face that the most important part of the conversation was about to begin. Great. This is where he goes back on his word and tries to make me hold out until twenty.

"I wonder if you've thought much about what it is like to be immortal," he began pensively.

"Sure I have," I said cheerfully, attempting to avoid the dark turn that the conversation was threatening to take. "You don't sweat, you don't bleed, and you don't trip all over your own feet. Sounds like heaven to me."

A hint of my favorite crooked smile flashed on his face, but it was gone too quickly. I waited to hear whatever he had thought was so important that he had to schedule the conversation.

"You don't sweat, that's right…or cry, or eat, or even breathe if you don't feel like it. You don't do anything remotely human anymore, and that includes sleep, Bella. Have you thought of all of the hours that you pass in untroubled sleep?" I shrugged. Sleep had been somewhat elusive ever since I had agreed to marry Edward directly out of high school. "What will you do with the hours of the night that you can no longer use to unwind in unconsciousness?"

"Catch up on my reading," I said simply. "I've been dying for a chance to read _Wuthering Heights_." It was intended to be a joke, but Edward plunged on.

"And while all of the people you know are busy dreaming, you will be completely unable to do so. Are you willing to give up your dreams for an eternity?"

I brushed the back of his hand with my fingertips. "You are my dream," I said.

His expression softened as I gazed into his eyes, but the frustration was still easily visible as he continued, taking my hand in both of his. I listened dutifully. "It's not only the termination of all human necessities. It's the overwriting of all human weaknesses. You'll be stronger than you understand…stronger than me…stronger than Emmett!"

"It's impossible to gauge your strength and speed as a neophyte. It takes constant self-control not to crush things to dust or to react with instinctive speed at any given moment."

I smiled, remembering how he had always seemed to be by my side that first year to surprise me, or to catch something that I had dropped. He misread my expression.

"You think of it in terms of freedom. You've been so limited by what you must do to avoid personal injury that the thought of being invincible seems wonderful, but it is a constant chore that must be done to avoid detection. What happens one day if you shake a man's hand and crush it to shreds?"

I shivered. Would I be able to do that?

"That's what I've had to worry about for ninety years now. I have to keep complete control at all times around humans." He flinched. "That is why your…last request is so difficult for me to grant."

I blushed profusely and my heartbeat seemed to skip a beat. He noticed, of course, and his topaz eyes met mine again for a moment before I looked away, embarrassed. I saw him smile knowingly from the corner of my eye. I may have been the only one whose thoughts he couldn't read, but my heart gave everything away just the same. Stupid beating heart!

But he wasn't finished.

"Bella, think of Charlie and Renee. Think of Jessica and Mike and Angela…even Jacob." His eyes narrowed only slightly when he said this last name. "They're all going to grow older and die in front of your eyes. The age that you feel weighing down on _you_ so harshly now will get them all. It's one thing to accept this when you know that it will happen to you as well, but when you become an exception…" he paused and his eyes went blank as if her were remembering. "It's difficult to watch everything you love fade away in time. It's difficult to watch the world advance and change before your eyes while you play on the margins just trying to avoid detection. Do you understand?"

I was staring into his eyes again, trying to understand the melancholy in his expression. "Not entirely," I said honestly. "But something tells me that no one could unless they've lived as long as you."

His face broke into a nostalgic smile as he stared at what I hoped was an expression of understanding.

"If I had a million years with you, I don't think I would be able to understand the mystery in a single one of your expressions," he whispered, leaning over slowly to brush his cool lips against my warm ones. He traced the line of my jaw down cautiously to my throat and, slower still to the base of my neck. My heart announced my pleasure to anyone near us. It seemed as if it were beating loud enough to hear in Forks. He pressed his cheek against my heart and listened carefully, running his hand down slowly down the side of my body, tracing the line of my shoulder…the inside of my arm…my waist, finally coming to a stop in the curve of my hip. He seemed to be enjoying the changes in the rhythm of my heartbeat that his explorations produced.

After a moment, he moved his eyes to my level once again and kissed me, stronger this time than before, letting his fingers slide through my hair and inviting me to push into the folds of his chiseled frame. I obliged, losing my resolve in an instant, and suddenly, my hands were in his copper hair, pulling him toward me even as he stiffened and pushed me gently away. I drew a sharp intake of breath as he disappeared suddenly, reappearing about ten yards away with his back turned toward me. I sat back, unmoving. It had been a while since he had needed to escape so far away from me. I remembered our conversation.

"Painful?" I asked.

"In more ways than you can know." His voice seemed deeper somehow.

"And it never goes away?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. Edward had been resisting human blood for over eighty years, and yet here he was ten yards away from me in physical pain, trying to avoid committing murder. I shivered. He noticed and came to sit next to me again, settling down a few feet away.

"Never completely, though you already know that it is so much more difficult because it's you."

"What's it like, I wonder?"

"I'm glad you are curious, because that's the last thing I wanted to speak about…the craving." He moved gracefully near enough to grab both of my hands and hold them in his lap. They were trembling and I knew that it would do no good to try to hide that fact. Edward's face was severe. He looked out away from me across the meadow as he began.

"I'm very sorry for this analogy. I know that it will cause you pain, but I have been thinking for a long time about how to explain the power behind the need for blood, and this is the only thing that I believe even comes close for you." I shifted nervously, grasping one of his wrists in anticipation.

"How do you feel for me, Bella?"

Shocked into silence before it even began. That was never a good sign.

"Uh…I…" I was certain that, had I been a vampire already, my mind and voice would be able to coincide enough to be able to form some understandable language. However, as I was still only human, Edward was forced to wait patiently while my mouth caught up with the rest of me. "You're everything I ever want to live for. I don't even know how to think about facing the world without you in my life."

A small smile creased his lips only for a fraction of a second, and then his tone was grave—more than serious as he contemplated his next words.

"And how did it feel for you," he gulped. _He_ gulped…"when I left."

Oh. My heart fell into my stomach. Just the simple memory of his face set in stone the afternoon that he had left me alone in the woods caused an echo of the painful hole inside of me to begin to ache. I pulled my hands away from him and wrapped them around my waste. The expression on his face told me that he was living something just as horrifying. His eyes closed for a moment, obviously in pain. Then he turned to look into my eyes again.

"I will never ask you about it again," he promised, taking my hands once again in his and staring at me with an intensity that left no doubt that he meant it. "You don't understand how much it hurts me now to bring it up, but it is the only way that you can understand the pain you will endure every day that you try to resist your desire for human blood."

I held my breath. It couldn't be that bad. Edward couldn't face that pain every time that he was near me. That kind of pain for so long would drive anyone insane. He seemed to read something like that in my expression.

"Oh, it's not so piercing for long. It fades, as I'm sure all pain does, but it is always there. It is always deep inside, causing you to create tiny fantasies and insane scenarios in your mind…anything to ease it for just one day. Do you understand?"

I thought of my motorcycle as it ran into a tree at thirty miles an hour. I thought of approaching the men who had wanted so much to attack me in Port Angeles. I thought of the sudden sensation of falling…no, jumping, off the cliffs outside of LaPush, and I believed I could understand the concept of doing something insane to end the pain. I nodded. He continued in a voice that was utterly calm.

"And when you're newly turned, you will be a slave to instinct. The only thing that you will understand when you come upon a human is the pain that they are causing you. You won't even stop to formulate a plan on how you can cause them to stop hurting you. You will simply react, and before you even understand what has happened, you'll kill them and drink their blood and quench the thirst that will take away the pain for that one moment." He was looking off again. It was clear to me that every word he was speaking now caused him to ache. I didn't dare to move.

"For the first few months, you won't have time to make a choice between who lives and who dies. All you'll understand is that there is blood nearby. It could be your best friend…a mother…a child." He paused and looked down again gravely. "It could be Charlie. And you'll feel it only after you have murdered your own father and feasted on his blood. But by then, it will be too late to repent. That is the force of the need inside you."

He paused and looked down at our intertwined hands. I realized then that I had been gradually tightening my grip on his wrist until my knuckles were white. My nails would have been digging into his skin had it not been impenetrable. He gently unfolded my fingers, his eyes fixed hesitantly on my wavering expression. "I didn't mean to frighten you," he whispered, and his voice was truly repentant as he pulled me slowly to him. "I just needed you to understand the life that you are about to embrace…and the life that you are giving up."

His arms formed a protective barrier around me. His cold hand stroked my spine as the image of my father, white and cold with his throat slit by my own hands echoed in the confines of my mind. It seemed to take a very long time to fade. Edward sat motionless with me tracing the curve of my spine and waiting for a signal that it had all sunk in.

Finally, I pushed away from him to look at his face. I didn't feel like smiling at all, but his angelic features brought one to my lips briefly. He ran his hand across my cheek.

"Do you still want to be a vampire?" he asked. He kept his voice stoically free of hope for one answer or the other.

Later, I was very proud of myself for keeping the tremble out of my voice as I answered him.

"Only if you promise that you will be there to make sure that what you describe will never happen."

Edward looked down darkly. "Bella, I can promise to keep you away from Charlie, but I cannot keep you away from all of humanity, nor can I guarantee that you will never slip up." He took my hand again. "It's happened to the best of us." A flash of humor lit his face. "Jasper's betting against it, remember?"

I exhaled loudly and rolled my eyes. "Just promise me that I'll never find my father…or my mother for that matter, dead in my hands."

"Done," he agreed, but there was enough regret in his voice that I realized he had hoped for a different reaction. This brought up another very important issue.

"I want you to promise me one more thing," I insisted. His eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Well, I seem to be the only one who can keep you out of their head, and I don't think I'm going to be able to read _your_ thoughts anytime soon…"

"You're worrying me, Bella. What do you propose?"

"If we're going to be husband and wife, it seems only fair to me that there be no secrets between us," I finished.

He looked relieved. "Also done," he said, but I wasn't satisfied.

"That means no withholding of any kind of information…like rogue vampires on their way to kill me, or a secret society of ancient vampires in possession of their own city in Italy."

He chuckled under his breath. "All right. You win." He flashed his gleaming smile, and I was momentarily dazed.

"Really?" I asked through the haze. "Then answer me. Did you truly expect me to change my mind about my turning today?"

He sighed. "No." He picked a purple wildflower and placed it behind my ear, brushing my hair back from my face as well. "But I had hoped. A man can hope." There was a hint of a smile in his eyes. "Even a vampire can hope."

I tried again. "Where are we going on our honeymoon?" I asked.

His crooked smile was suddenly in place, and his hands appeared on either side of my face as he leaned in slowly to graze my lips again. I inhaled the sweet scent all around me, and when he pulled away, all the resolve had left me. I sat back, overcome.

"That doesn't fall under our promise. The arrangements were made weeks ago."

I didn't argue. Who could argue with a vampire?


	3. Eternity

This was it.

This was my last half hour as a Swan.

I could hear the people arriving through the door of Alice's room—great booming cheerful voices and lower, calmer ones that I was sure were whispering scandalous rumors about the chief's daughter getting married at such a young age. I wrung my hands furiously in a nervous attempt not to fiddle with the sculpted curls that fell around my face.

Rosalie and Alice had spent the last hour turning my hair into what could only be described as a work of art, given the hopeless mess they had begun with. It would have taken any normal hairdresser hours, but then again, Rosalie and Alice weren't exactly normal. They had appeared at my house in Alice's bright yellow Porsche at first light, scaring poor Charlie to death, and practically kidnapping me in front of his eyes. Some police chief he was. He had yelled after us that he would be at their house at around two. I thought I heard him snickering as I was literally carried to the car.

I had been held prisoner since then, forced to sit in a chair and undergo some of the worst torture rituals that women of my time have ever been through in the name of beauty. Each torment bore a different name…pedicure…exfoliation…skin wrap…manicure…the waxing was particularly close to some forms of torture I had actually read about in the Japanese prisoner of war camps after World War II.

I had been as cheerful as I could possibly be for someone who had been allowed only four hours of sleep. Alice complained about the circles under my eyes as she applied generous amount of foundation over every imperfection of my face.

"What's so bad about dark circles?" I had asked sarcastically. "You all have them, and you're the most beautiful family in Forks."

Rosalie had smiled vainly at this, but Alice just rolled her eyes and moved on to her next weapon, cleverly disguised as eyeliner.

In the end, I had to admit, the vampire girls knew their beauty treatments. When they finally allowed me to look in the mirror, I was shocked into speechlessness. I didn't even recognize myself. The dress that Alice had focused so much of her time and effort into was indescribable. Every detail seemed like it was created to make me feel more beautiful. I began to tear over as I ran my hands over the delicate satin folds and the carefully beaded embroidery.

"Oh no! I forgot about the water!" Alice had said, running for a towel before I could destroy my newly painted face. The Cullens had no need for Kleenexes in their house—a fact that suddenly seemed like a dangerous oversight.

Now, all I had to do was wait—though "hide" seemed like a better word for it. Renee had come to see me when she had first arrived, and had left crying, wiping her eyes with the ample amount of Kleenex that she had thankfully packed into her purse. Charlie had tried to get in, but Rosalie was playing guard…no boys allowed. Edward was not even allowed in the house. Jasper and Emmet had taken him to wait in a tiny hunting cabin on the other end of the property so that he couldn't pick the images of me in my dress out of his sisters' minds. I wondered exactly what he was thinking right now.

"You look so worried, Bella!" It was Angela, my second bridesmaid. She was beautiful in the sterling blue gown that Alice had chosen for them both. I gave her a sickly smile.

"I'm just a little worried that I'm doing this too soon," I told her. That was no secret. Everyone gathering in the front room of the Cullen home at this moment was probably thinking the same thing.

Angela shrugged calmly. "I don't think so."

"You don't?" I replied surprised.

"Nope," she persisted. "I think you've known exactly what you wanted from the beginning. Him too. I'm amazed you waited this long. It was pretty obvious he was in it for the long haul from the beginning…even after his parents made him move to California. I bet he played a part in convincing them to come back."

I laughed. Angela was so easy to believe. Her calm security was helping me more than I could say.

"But isn't the entire town talking about the scandal of it?" I asked her, uneasy. It certainly seemed that way to me when I was driving around, feeling the scathing looks from all of the mothers in Forks.

Angela suppressed a smile. 'To tell you the truth, what I've heard is that they think Edward's lucky that he found a good Forks girl to settle down with. It makes him more…normal."

"Normal!" I nearly bellowed. I didn't know whether to take that statement as a complement. The last thing I wanted to do was to turn my beautiful guardian angel into something _normal_. But I hadn't missed the fact that I was actually considered a "Forks girl." It made me smile.

"Face it Bella," Angela continued. "Before you came, Edward was pretty much a recluse—a good looking recluse, but still someone that could better be described as a little frightening. You made him more…human."

I giggled. She had no idea how right she was…and how wrong at the same time, but her words were somehow comforting, and I found myself thinking that maybe the wedding was not exactly a bad idea…if only I could avoid the part where I would be walking down the aisle as the center of everyone's attention. I could just picture myself falling straight into one of the glass candelabras that Alice had placed up and down the aisles, cutting myself, and turning my perfect wedding day into a bloodbath.

I groaned. "I just wish that everyone wasn't watching me walking down the aisle. I hate being the center of attention."

"Oh, you're absolutely beautiful," Angela reassured me. "I'll have to ask Alice and Rosalie if they'll do my wedding someday, but I don't think you'll be the center of attention at this wedding."

Of course. Who was I kidding. I was marrying a vampire in a house full of vampires. Who would be focusing on me? I relaxed a little.

"What I mean is, I think everyone will just be focusing on what's between you and Edward," she clarified. "The love you two have is pretty intimidating. It's like a protective bubble all around you both…like the kind you see in the movies that they've been waiting years and years to finally find."

She had no idea.

"I think you're both very lucky, Bella."

I stared at her in amazement. "Thank you, Angela," I said, and I didn't have to fake the happiness I felt. In one short conversation, she had sold me on marriage. I felt a pang of guilt that I would not be able to see her after this for such a very long time. She was a wonderful friend. I made a silent note to add her to the list of people Edward was to prevent me from killing.

She looked over at the clock on Alice's computer. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Ben's supposed to be here by now. Don't worry, Bella. You're going to live happily ever after. That's almost always what happens with Prince Charmings!" And she slipped out the door.

I smiled and silently hoped that it was also what happened with Count Draculas.

Alice pushed the door open, then, and flew at me so quickly and gracefully that she was hugging me before I even knew that she was there. Rosalie followed calmly behind her.

"Oh, that was so beautiful!" Alice gasped, her voice higher than normal. "I knew there was a reason I liked that Angela! If I could cry, I would right now!"

It was probably for the best that she couldn't, given the current Kleenex situation, but I smiled at her anyway—a genuine, heartfelt smile—and surveyed the scene.

She had changed into her bridesmaid's dress, which had made her the usual shade of absolutely stunning that I hoped was inherent in all vampires…especially future ones. Rosalie was the picture of perfection in a long dark blue gown that I was sure she had gone to great lengths to tone down so that the focus would be on me alone. She had failed miserably, much to my relief.

She was looking more uneasy than usual…more than she had all day, and my instinct told me that she had something important to say. I sighed nervously. Rosalie had only very recently accepted my presence, and had not yet accepted my decision to become a vampire, so it was with reluctance that I gave her my most patient look.

"Something on your mind Rosalie?"

"Nothing really," she replied with badly acted nonchalance. "I just wanted to tell you how beautiful you look today. How human."

My lips curved into a grateful smile. That was probably the best compliment that Rosalie could give, considering her desire to be human again. "I guess I know a little bit about this kind of thing…marriage, I mean." She gave a nostalgic laugh. "After all, I've married Emmet seven times."

Seven!

I sat down hard on Alice's bed. Rosalie moved gracefully to sit beside me. Her tone was serious, but her eyes reflected an awkwardness that must have been extremely uncommon for her.

"I'm really happy for you, Bella," she said, and I stared at her uncertainly, recognizing how hard it probably was for her to tell me that.

She continued. "You didn't see Edward before he met you, so you can't understand the ways that you've changed him, but I can assure you that it is an amazing transformation. It's like he's finally found the one thing in all time and space that he's meant for. It's a little frightening actually, the strength of it," she noticed the worry on my face. "But that's a good thing!" she added quickly, then surprised me by taking my hand. The gesture was so sisterly that I was moved almost to tears. Alice went for the towel again.

"Edward's the oldest of us siblings, and the most experienced. He's spent decades in colleges collecting degrees, and he's explored every place in the world that you could probably imagine." She laughed this comment off as if it were no more of an accomplishment than putting your pants on in the morning. "He can show you a lot of things, Bella, but what he found in you…all of the feeling—he's just as new to all of it as you are."

Her sweet laughter resonated around the room. "He's probably waiting in that shack just like any clueless human boy, counting down the seconds and wishing that he could read your thoughts just this once. Trust me, I know."

I tried to imagine a vulnerable and clueless Edward. For some reason, my imagination wouldn't stretch that far, but the possibility made me grin. This seemed to satisfy Rosalie.

A knock at the door made me jump. My two companions sighed and smiled at each other eagerly.

"It's Charlie and Angela," Rosalie said serenely. "It's time."

Oh god!

My legs suddenly failed me. If I hadn't been sitting already, I would have collapsed. My mind seemed unable to move away from the picture of all of the guests…hundreds of eyes staring at me, just waiting for me to trip. I couldn't breath.

Rosalie let Charlie in, and then slipped quietly out to get the boys. I tried to stand as my father entered with Angela on his arm. The dress was too beautiful to be first viewed sitting down, but my entire body had ceased to function. Alice gave a tinny half-laugh and helped me to my feet. Charlie was open-mouthed in the doorway, just as petrified as I was. I was too terrified to laugh, but the fact that I was truly my father's daughter did not escape me.

"Honestly!" Alice said indignantly. "If I have to carry you both down the aisle, I'll never forgive either one of you!"

That got Charlie laughing. He stared at Alice's pixie like frame. "I'd actually pay for pictures of you trying to do that!" he chortled.

I'd pay for pictures of Charlie's face if he ever found out she actually _could_ do it.

His paralysis broken, he offered me his arm awkwardly and stared in awe as I took it. "Really Bella, you are…" His voice threatened to break. I flashed a worried glance at Alice. If Charlie started to cry, that was it. I was carrying the towel down the aisle with me, but he composed himself quickly. "You've gone and turned into the most beautiful woman I've ever seen right in front of my face," he finished.

My eyes threatened to tear over again. I'd forgotten how much of a romantic my dad used to be. From below us, I heard the piano begin and was actually glad for a chance to avoid his eyes. This was it. I tried to keep the tremble out of my voice as I turned toward my two ladies in blue.

"Let's get this party started."

I followed Alice and Angela out of the door and down the stairs, relying heavily on both Charlie and Alice to get me down them without injury, and was suddenly unable to move any further. The main room of the Cullen house had been completely transformed into what looked to me like an elaborately decorated turn of the century banquet hall. The walls had been adorned with a shimmering blue satin, and the aisle was lighted by a series of exquisitely delicate candelabras that looked directly out of another time. I stared around at Alice open mouthed. She looked extremely pleased with herself.

"Circa 1918, I believe," she said with an innocent smirk. Perfect.

At that moment, the room was plunged into a sudden silence, and my stomach flipped into my throat as it all happened exactly how I had dreaded. I was standing just behind Alice and Angela at the beginning of the aisle when every eye in the room turned back toward me. My breath stopped. My heart began to pound so fast that I couldn't distinguish individual beats, and I could feel the heat radiating off my face as I struggled not to imagine how deeply I was blushing.

Then Alice was dancing down the aisle, followed elegantly by Angela. I strained my neck, trying to find Edward at the end, but the aisle curved slightly, and my destination was hidden by a particularly beautiful bouquet.

The piano began again—the unmistakable calming melody of Debussy. The memory of my first forced car ride with Edward caused a sharp intake of breath and the tears threatened to fall again. I grabbed Charlie's arm in a death grip, looked up into his surprisingly certain eyes, and took my first sure steps toward eternity.

No one is staring at you.

_No one is staring at you!_

A strange sense of déjà vu spread through me as I remembered telling myself those same words constantly the first week Edward had given me my new car. It had worked then… a little, but today it was utterly useless. I was the one in white. Of _course_ everyone was staring at me. I changed my mantra.

_You will not trip and fall!_

But even the mention of tripping caused me to look down at the floor and imagine the needle thin heels that Alice had forced onto my feet hours ago and that were now hidden under miles of satin. I faltered. Charlie grasped me tighter, smiling down knowingly. I forced an apologetic smile back and concentrated instead on the faces in the crowd.

The entire town seemed to be gathered in the Cullen parlor. I saw Angela's parents sitting alongside a very well-dressed Ben. There was Tyler and Lauren, looking extremely bitter as usual, and beside them was Jessica with a camera in her hand. Billy was seated further ahead, with Sam, Embry, Quil, Paul, and Jared in succession to his right, all looking more like grim body guards than wedding guests. I tried not to imagine the one who was missing between Sam and Billy. Not today. This was supposed to be a happy day.

Someone should have told Leah that. Her eyes were shooting daggers at me from her position next to her mother. It reminded me of the look that I had seen on Rosalie's face when I had first met Edward's family. Just behind her were Mike and_ his_ mother. Mike wore a look of utter defeat, but he didn't seem to be able to take his eyes off of me as I passed by. I managed a smile in his direction.

His mother seemed extremely uncomfortable by his side, and I realized that she was seated next to four breathtakingly beautiful figures—one man and three women—all impossibly pale and golden eyed...the Denali clan I presumed. They were eerily still and smiling. I found myself reluctantly searching for the tall strawberry blond, and I suffered a momentary collapse in self-esteem as I realized how truly breathtaking she really was. Perfect.

I moved on as quickly as possible.

There were Rosalie, Carlisle, and Esme smiling encouragingly on one side of the aisle, and Phil and Renee seated next to the blank space that had been left for Charlie after he gave me away…

But that was as far as I got, because that was when _he_ came into view.

He was an actor out of a turn of the century period piece—an angel straight from heaven in a light gray tuxedo that fit his godlike form to perfection. He stood very still and impossibly confident, exactly how I had pictured every hero in every book I had ever read, only Edward far surpassed any beauty that my imagination could possibly conjure.

His bronze hair was gelled smoothly back, and his pale, full lips were pressed tight into a nervous smile that disappeared almost instantly when his eyes caught mine. They blazed with an intensity that pierced my heart. It was incomprehensible. He was staring at me as if I was the only person in the room…the only person in his universe. The sheer power behind those eyes held me there in the moment, and suddenly everything that had seemed so intimidating began to fade into the background. My knees buckled.

"Careful Bells!" Charlie caught me of course. His whisper brought me back…but only halfway. "Something tells me I'd be in trouble if I gave you away in less that perfect condition."

My mind flickered back to a moment outside my house where Edward had spoken those exact words to a different person. _If you return her to me in less than the perfect condition that I left her in, you will be running with three legs_.

I didn't respond…couldn't have if I had wanted to. My eyes had frozen on the utopian vision before me, and my breath would not come at all. I did not even notice as Charlie passed me reluctantly over to him—wasn't privilege to the look that he gave Edward that was meant to be threatening. I was lost in a topaz oblivion that didn't waver as he nodded his gratitude toward my father and took my hands in his.

"You're…" He was speechless. "…I…" _Edward_ was speechless! That was a first—and only fair. He couldn't speak, and I couldn't breathe.

"You outshine every single memory I have ever had of anything beautiful in my life…or death." The last part was spoken so low that only I would hear…and, of course, the vampires in their various stations around me.

I looked around at the wedding party. Alice and Angela stood on my left beaming, and on my right stood Seth and Jasper, both regal in their matching tuxedos, and both looking rather nervous. I smiled. Seth, I assumed, was having a difficult time being in a room so full of vampires, and Jasper could never be completely at ease in a place so packed with werewolves and appetizers. As I watched, Jasper folded his hands politely in front of him and adopted as look of sly sarcasm.

"Enjoy this moment," he whispered. "It's probably the only time Edward will ever be at a loss for words." His smirk resulted from the knowledge that Edward couldn't retaliate in front of so many guests, but a sense of calm glided over the room just in case.

I didn't need it. At this moment, there was nowhere else that I would rather be than at the end of this aisle hand in hand with an angel. I smiled up at him.

Emmett's snicker became the call to attention. We turned toward him. I didn't want to look away from Edward, but the sight of Emmett—jovial and bearlike _Emmett_—presiding over the ceremony was too much of a temptation to miss. I had admitted to Alice that it had been one of the most controversial decisions, and I stood in front of his good natured smirk now in sudden fear of a very badly timed comment with sexual innuendo. Thankfully, he began more traditionally.

"We are gathered here to today to join in holy matrimony, these two…"

"You're making nearly every female classmate you've invited incredibly jealous," came Edward's melodic whisper, interrupting Emmett's speech. "Their envy is almost scathing."

He took my hand again, and I was acutely aware of his beautiful eyes staring sideways at me as he tried to carry on the illusion of paying attention. By the look of Emmett's face, he was not fooling anyone, but Emmett didn't seem to care. I still hadn't found enough breath to spare for a response, so I tried to turn my attention to the words.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy…"

"Mike's mother believes you are the most beautiful bride she's ever seen. I agree wholeheartedly." Another brilliant smile as he chanced another glance at my face. I squeezed his hand, worried that if I looked into his eyes, I wouldn't be able to look away. I blushed slightly as I imagined myself missing entirely the part where I was supposed to say _I do_.

"…does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects…"

"She's planning to ask you where you bought your dress at the reception." Edward continued. I looked back lovingly at Alice, who nodded in what I could only assume was her permission to sing her praises later. Angela's eyes were locked on Ben.

"Marriage is a solemn institution held in honor by all…"

Edward's hand tightened around mine. "Your mother has never been more proud of you than she is at this moment." He grinned. "She's trying to understand what happened to the little girl who used to dance around the house playing Cinderella. You were adorable."

I smiled slyly. "What is _Tanya_ thinking?" I prompted, not so subtly. He turned his head to stare lovingly down at me, but I noticed the tightening of his lips as well.

"…symbolizes the intimate sharing of two lives and still enhances…"

"She is thinking that you'll make an astonishing vampire." His voice was slightly colder, his face expressionless. "She's not exactly happy about that thought."

"It that all?" I whispered.

The same grin, guilty this time. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

"No," I whispered, this time a bit too loud. Emmett coughed and began the next lines with a bit more volume. This was the important part.

"Do you Edward Anthony Cullen, take Isabella Swan…"

"Bella," we both said instinctively, and Emmett smirked. He'd done that on purpose! Jerk. "Do you take Bella to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

_He did!_ And I suddenly found that in those two words rested my entire existence.

"And do you Bella Swan take Edward Cullen to be your lawfully wedded husband?" He added something at the end, too quick and too quiet for anyone but me—and the vampires—to hear. "Think that one over carefully, there, Bella."

Edward seethed.

"I do." Was it ever in doubt? My voice broke on the last word, and I tried to gulp down the lump in my throat that was threatening to bring with it a full fledged shower of tears.

He squeezed my hand tighter and the love that I found in his eyes caused the tears to start in mine. Alice moved forward quickly with the Kleenex that I was certain she had stolen from my mother.

"Great! Do you have the rings?" Emmet asked. All eyes turned to Seth, who suddenly looked a bit sick to be the center of attention. Good, at least somebody understood it. He dug awkwardly into his pocket. A look of relief washed over him as he passed the fragile silver rings quickly first to Edward, and then to me.

It was time for the vows. I had vehemently insisted that the vows be the traditional, repeat-after-me, no-pressure-to-be-creative kind of vows. My reasoning behind this was that being on a Volturi hit list, maintaining a difficult peace between two sworn enemies, and secretly planning my own painful death seemed like quite enough pressure for me to deal with at the moment. There was no need for the added stress of trying to place my feelings for this beautiful being before me into words. He had already made me understand exactly what all of the poets and authors throughout all of history must have been devastated to discover in their own times…the inevitable impossibility of finding the words for falling in love. Edward had protested at first, but in the end, he had humbly promised that he would not write his own vows.

"Repeat after me, Bella," Emmett said, smiling. "I, Bella, take you Edward to be my wedded husband."

I repeated the words, lost now in his glorious smile.

"To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part." Was it just me who noticed the hint of a chuckle at the last part? Edward's face was radiant, but his eyes were grave. _Until death do us part_ meant so much more when death was no longer a factor. I repeated the words, hoping that the devotion I felt would show in my expression as I slipped the ring onto his cold finger.

Neither of us were breathing.

"Edward?" Emmett stood back as if waiting for something.

_What? _

Edward wasn't about to repeat anything. I fumed at him. He had promised! I looked around at Alice and Jasper who both wore smug grins but refused to meet my eyes. Edward's smile was triumphant, radiant—all teeth—as he began, his eyes never moving from mine.

"Bella Swan, I love you because you are more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, mine and yours are the same." I inhaled loudly as I recognized the most beautiful line from Wuthering Heights. My heartbeat sped up. He had cheated!

"When two souls, which have sought each other for however long in the throng have finally found each other, a union, fiery and pure as they themselves are begins on earth and continues forever in heaven. This union is love, true love-a religion, which deifies the loved one, whose life comes from devotion and passion, and for which the greatest sacrifices are the sweetest delights."

My face went completely blank and my mouth dropped open in shock.

"Victor Hugo," Jasper informed quietly. The glare that he received in return would have burned any human to cinders, but I could not bring myself to project that same glare upon Edward. They were the most breathtaking vows I had ever heard. He continued, slipping the ring onto my shaking finger.

"I love you, Bella—and those three words have my life in them."

Tears again, and Alice appeared with another Kleenex. "Alexandrea to Nicolas II," she whispered. Damn him!

He wasn't done. "And I will love you, always."

I stared up into his eyes waiting for Alice or Jasper to fill me in on the origins of the last quote. Edward's crooked smile appeared, and the urge to reach for him, to fold into his arms and kiss his luscious lips had never been so irresistible.

"Bon Jovi," he admitted only to me, sounding slightly embarrassed. I stifled a laugh…and a sob.

"Alright, before Bella gets to crying too hard and ruins all that make-up, I suppose that I should get on with it," Emmett announced, causing laughter to ruffle through the crowd and putting an end to the tears immediately. I made a silent note to sucker punch him when I finally acquired all my newborn strength.

"I now pronounce you man…" Once again, I was the only one who seemed to notice the sarcasm behind that last word. "and wife."

I let out a long relieved breath. Edward seemed to be glowing with triumph.

"Go on," Emmett said to him, his tone goading. "You've been waiting for it all day…kiss the bride."

And then his lips were pressed against mine, and the rest of the world ceased to exist. My heart skipped a beat…skipped two or three, and Edward had to support me as my knees gave out again. I could have stayed there forever, but the trance was broken when his jaw tensed and I realized that the muscles in his arms had frozen. I pulled away and frowned at him. He stared back, looking almost angry for a moment, and then his eyes met mine, and they were ecstatic.

He pulled me to him, touching his lips tenderly to my ear. "Prepare yourself," he whispered, smirking, and I reveled in the sweet scent of his breath. It made me forget to wonder exactly what he was talking about.

Emmett punched him playfully in the arm, knocking him to one side, and turned to the crowd.

"Ladies and gentleman, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Edward and Bella Cullen!" There was a thunderous applause.

Bella Cullen. That would take no time at all to get used to. My mouth was already forming the words. My head was full of it as Edward wrapped his arm around my waste and we made our way back down the aisle. I beamed up at him, and he smiled back mysteriously, leading me quickly past the smiling, laughing, crying, booming crowd of guests. I wondered why he was in so much of a hurry.

The reason was waiting at the end of the aisle, dressed in a beautiful black suit that seemed only slightly too small for his towering frame. His long black hair fell elegantly over his shoulders, but did nothing to hide the look of profound chagrin that shaded his face.

_Jacob!_


	4. Rivals

"Jacob!" I exclaimed.

Edward released me and nodded his silent appreciation toward my best friend. "I'm pleased that you decided to come," he said genuinely.

"I didn't do it to please you." Jacob's tone was cold, but there was no challenge in the words.

Edward nodded. "I know," he said, and brushed his fingers lovingly through my hair. "You still have my gratitude. Thank you."

Jacob's expression was solid—emotionless as he looked down at me and his eyes melted into a grin that seemed more like defeat than happiness. "Looks like I missed something important," he said.

My smile could not have been more opposite his. It widened impossibly as I flung my arms around his shoulders, the white lilies of my bouquet smashing into the back of his head and filling his hair with petals.

"You came right on time!" I laughed into his lapel. "They're just about to bring out the food!" He chuckled quietly.

"It's about time!" Emmett interrupted as he passed us, punching Edward again on his way toward the receiving line. Rosalie was on his other arm, stealing all of the light from the room as usual. "I'm starving!"

Jacob snarled. I glared at Emmett, and hugged Jacob tighter until he passed. He hugged me back awkwardly. "Easy, Bells," he sighed, pulling his head down to avoid the shower of baby's breath that was falling from my broken bouquet. "You know you have to throw that later." Then he looked up at the line of smiling people that was beginning to form at the doors, waiting to receive Edward and me. "Looks like your duties as a bride aren't over quite yet."

I looked back at Edward, who was waiting patiently, whispering something unintelligible to Jasper. "Will you stay for the reception?" I asked.

"Sure," he reassured me, releasing me from the hug. "That's what I came here for." My grin reflected in his dark eyes as I turned to my stunning groom, but Jacob grabbed my hand.

"You're really beautiful today, Bella," he whispered, his voice seeming to shake. "I can't find the words."

"There _are_ no words," came the smooth reply from behind me. Edward's arms slipped around my shoulders and I heard his slow breath as he took in the scent of my hair. As usual, I blushed crimson. "You would have to invent an entirely new canon to describe the level of magnificence that you present at this moment."

Jacob flinched. A moment of intentional silence passed between the two of them, and I noticed that the crowd was getting larger. A few guests were looking impatiently in our direction. Then Edward nodded.

"Of course," he said, responding to thoughts instead of words. "You two will have all of the time that you want when the reception begins. It seems like a conversation that you both need very much."

Edward's face was earnest, his stance relaxed. I stared up at Jacob puzzled. A half-smile played at his lips as he met my insistent gaze, but he said nothing. Edward wound his fingers in my own, and started toward the head of the line.

"Join us, please, Jacob," he added. "You were, after all, Bella's choice for best man."

Jacob held back, looking too much like he was about to back out. I cut in quickly. "Come on, Jake! You know most of the people here anyway!"

Reluctantly, he followed us, placing himself timidly between me and Seth in the line. The people began to pass by in a blur of handshakes, hugs, and congratulations. Carlisle and Esme passed first, Esme pulling me into a hug that was so tight, it forced the breath out of me.

"Oh Bella, we are so happy that you are finally an official member of our family!" she said, exuberant beyond belief.

Renee, Phil, and Charlie were close behind. Charlie seemed ecstatic to see Jacob in his proper place in the wedding party. He clapped him heartily on the shoulder and pulled him out of line.

"Good to see you Jake!" he boomed. "We'd thought you'd gotten yourself into a bit of trouble there for a few months. Nice to see that you're back in Forks."

Jacob looked awkward. "No trouble Charlie…just wanderlust, I guess." He looked like he wanted to say more, but he held back.

Renee put her hand on Edward's shoulder, an act that both men seemed to be too uneasy to do, and smiled her carefree smile. "Edward, you've got a great family, but we're very glad to have you to add to _our_ strange little coven too."

Edward's lips twitched, and I stifled a laugh. "Thank you very much, Renee," he managed as my parents moved on.

Leah let out a hiss as she passed by Edward without shaking his hand, and took mine only half-heartedly, eyes focused on her prodigal pack member instead. True to Edward's word, Mike's mother mentioned the quality of my dress four times before Mr. Weber gently nudged her on and took his turn, shaking each hand firmly and hugging his daughter on his way out. I was wondering what the humans in Forks were thinking of Edward and Jasper's cold hands when a high musical voice startled me.

"Edward!" it sang, and I cringed, imagining the waist length strawberry blond hair and perfectly slender form that accompanied it. "What a beautiful ceremony! It is such a pleasure to see you again, and under such happy circumstances!"

She was every bit as flawless as I had feared, with strange wild mannerisms and an intense look in her light honey eyes. I backed up, not wanting to give Edward a chance to compare us and realize the horrible mistake he was making. He took my arm and pulled me to him.

"Tanya, Kate…this is my wife Bella."

_Wife_. I blushed and mumbled something that might have sounded like a greeting. The color in my cheeks seemed to draw a reaction from the beautiful couple behind the women. They both let out a light, natural series of notes that must have been laughter, but seemed more like melody.

"A truly blushing bride!" the woman said in a trilling Spanish accent. "She's absolutely exquisite, Edward!" Then she turned to me and offered her hand. "I'm Carmen, child. This is Eleazar. We are so pleased to meet you!"

"Me too…" I said weakly, feeling utterly intimidated in the face of all this beauty. Where was Jasper when I needed him? I looked over. He was talking to the woman that Edward had just introduced as Kate. Carmen laughed again.

"I'm so very sorry that our other daughter couldn't come…" she began, but Tanya finished.

"She's allergic to _dogs_," she said bitterly, staring over at Jacob and Seth. They both growled under their breath and Edward had to grab Jacob's shoulder. He turned to Tanya, eyes smoldering.

"Those _dogs_ came to our aid when even our own _family_ had refused," Edward hissed between clenched teeth. "Bella is alive today because of them. I owe them everything. They are our friends, so I must ask you to please be civil to them while you are here, Tanya."

The tension was only visible to those in our little circle. Then Tanya smiled a horribly fake smile and moved on.

"I am very sorry," Edward apologized to Jacob and Seth. "I hadn't taken into account the animosity that Tanya must also feel. I had no idea."

Neither Seth nor Jacob responded, but both seemed to look like they no longer wanted to be there. After that, I had trouble paying attention to anyone passing by.

"Thank you so much for coming, Jake. You have no idea how horrible I've felt imagining you off somewhere hurt, or alone, or…" I broke off. Jacob was laughing at me.

"Bella, I can't really get hurt," he chuckled, then his face became more serious. "And I'm never alone. You know that."

"I do, but you get mad at me when I try to use _that_ method of communication."

Another chuckle. We moved slowly away from the crowds of people gathered around silk covered tables full of food, out of the shimmering light provided by the millions of white Christmas bulbs that Alice had nearly killed herself—if that were possible—putting up, and into the relative privacy of the cedars. I glanced quickly back at Edward, who had graciously promised to listen to neither thoughts nor words. He met my gaze, nodded, and then turned his attention to Emmett and Jasper, who were laughing at Rosalie as she tried to gracefully refuse the food that Charlie was forcing on her.

It suddenly occurred to me that Emmett and Jasper had made no promise not to listen…and Edward was such a fan of technicalities. I scowled. He would have already picked everything out of Jacob's head before anyway.

"So, where have you been, Jake?" I began harmlessly.

He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Here and there. Up north mostly…hanging out with the timberwolves." He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. It wasn't the smile that I had been waiting to see. "I've been running a lot…running and thinking almost constantly." He looked off into the darkness. His eyes were bleak. "Bella, I came back to tell you goodbye. I realized that I didn't do that before I left the first time."

"The first time?" I frowned. "Jake, are you leaving again?"

He nodded. "Tonight."

"No! You have to say hi to Charlie…and you haven't even seen your dad yet!" This was getting annoying—all this appearing and disappearing. I crossed my arms over my chest. Jacob laughed.

"You look just like a little girl not getting her way!" He pulled my arms away gently and hugged me. "I'll stop by and say hello to Billy on my way out, and I already talked to Charlie."

"But Jake, you just got here! Stay a little while! A night or two at least!"

His jaw clenched. "Where will you be in a night or two, Bella?"

I looked down at the ground. I had no idea how to answer that. Edward had been very careful to hide every single detail of our honeymoon from me. All I knew was that I would be lying somewhere isolated with the man of my dreams, hopefully enjoying my last human request. A smirk appeared accidentally on my face. A grimace appeared on Jacob's.

"Oh, Jake, I'm sorry," I attempted, but he brushed me away.

"Don't be, Bella. You made your choice, and as much as it kills me to admit it…he's OK." And I could see that it actually caused him physical pain to say it. "I know him now…enough to not be able to hate him, and you have to understand how _much_ I want to hate him. But I can't, even for what he is. He's…he's…" he swallowed hard. "He's good, I suppose." I smiled, but he quickly added, "For a bloodsucker." I sighed.

"Jake…"

"No, just don't say anything yet, please Bells," he demanded. His face was indecipherable. "Just let me get this out, OK?"

"OK," I complied.

He took a deep, slow breath and began again.

"While I was running, I was thinking about how stupid I was…how selfish to be in love with you, and to want you to love me back, when I could find that girl that I'm supposed to be with, and imprint on her at any moment. Where would that leave you?"

The question wasn't meant to be answered, so I stood quietly and waited for him to go on. He was looking back at the party, watching as Alice and Jasper spun across the dance floor. Emmett and Edward were still deep in conversation.

"I tried to make it you," Jacob continued solemnly. "It's just not something you can force, you know? So I guess I won't be able to keep that promise I made to you after all. One day, I'll find someone who'll make me forget all about you and how much I love you—I _really_ love you, Bella!"

"I love you too, Jake…" But it wasn't the same. The center of my world had shifted completely and irreversibly…had gravitated to the pallid angel who stood wrapped in the light of our wedding reception. I felt his pull with every fiber of my being, and Jake saw that as clearly as he saw the pain on my face at the realization. He nodded silently, biting his bottom lip, seemingly afraid to continue.

"I don't want you to say anything. I don't want to hear anything about it." His determined tone worried me. I looked up at him, obediently silent. "I've also been trying to…understand. To think about the decision you're going to make from your point of view." His face wrinkled in what could have been concentration or disgust, and he folded his arms around his enormous frame.

"You're…you're dying for someone you love. That's not exactly it, but it's the only way I can stomach it…and I guess I'm going to have to stomach it." His voice was hard as her reached the last words. I opened my mouth to respond.

"Don't!" he stopped the words before they could confirm his fears. "I don't want to know. I just want to say that if it's like that…dying for someone you love, then I think I would do it too."

Shocked silence. I couldn't even begin to understand how much this conversation had to be hurting my best friend. I reached my arm out and touched his cheek. He moved away, but I saw how reluctant those movements were.

"I would die for someone I love," he pushed on. "I would die for you, so I guess I can't blame you for wanting to do what you are going to do, but everything inside me…my heart…my whole mind…all of the instincts that come with the werewolf package…they _hate_ what you're going to be Bella! I can't be here to watch that blush fade from your cheeks and watch you turn cold and…die. I can't see you like that!"

His breath was coming in rapid bursts now, but it wasn't anger that colored his face. He stared up at me intensely, and I knew that this was goodbye. My best friend was leaving, probably for good, and there was not one thing that I could find inside my head to say…not one word of comfort, or anything at all to make him stay. The tears needed no prompting.

"You chose him…that ring on your finger proves it, and that's why I can't stay here anymore. I can't sit by and watch you die. Your bloodsucker has had a century to learn how to control himself and even he wouldn't be able to just sit back and watch while you killed yourself." His body suddenly shimmered, his fists clenched, and I took a few cautious steps backwards.

"Jacob?" I asked. No other words would come.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The shimmering stopped in his upper body, ran slowly down through his legs, and then he was still.

"I'm going north, again, Bella," he said, his eyes still closed tight. "I'm going in search of whatever it is inside of me that I need to bring back to protect the tribe. I'm not going to think of you anymore."

And when he opened his eyes, they did not search for me. They forged through the darkness and into the reception where my new husband now sat with Kate and Tanya, his eyes darting anxiously toward our position. The two locked eyes for a moment, and I saw Edward's teeth come together…almost heard the snap from such a distance. He winced and closed his eyes. I glared over at Jacob.

"Stop it!" I yelled, and Tanya and Kate's heads snapped up frighteningly quickly. Edward put out a restraining hand. He stared Jacob down, and gave him the slightest shake of his beautiful bronze head.

"Never," he said, not loud enough for me to hear. I read his lips. Tanya was rising to her feet despite Edward's insistence. He rose with her and held her back.

"That dog was causing you pain?" she said malevolently, shooting daggers at Jacob. "You let them cause you pain!" Edward forced her to sit down again. She was still snarling. I moved in between her and Jacob.

"Goodbye Bella. I love you." Jacob's voice came from behind me now. I turned to tell him that I loved him too.

But he was gone.

And then Edward was there. His arms filled the empty space around me that Jacob had just left. His sweet breath entranced me as he whispered into my ear.

"He'll be alright. Come back into the light with me, please."

I wiped away the tears a little more shrewdly than I had intended—certain that Alice would not approve of the massacre I was making of her beautiful construction—and I looked up into Edward's piercing eyes. He was smiling uncertainly down at me, tracing the line of my jaw, wiping away a renegade tear.

"Do you want me to go after him?" he asked.

I knew that he would have if I had truly wanted him to, but I shook my head. This was the way it was supposed to be. I had found the other half of my soul. Jacob was entitled to the lone quest for his. My tears suddenly felt horribly greedy.

"No," I replied, sniffling back the last of them. I gazed up at the beautiful seventeen year old who was now my husband. "Shouldn't we be shoving cake into each other's faces right about now?"

He gauged my expression for a few moments more before the crooked smile made a reappearance on his face, demolishing the last traces of my melancholy.

"I believe everyone has been waiting for our first dance." He held his hand out confidently. My heart sunk into my stomach.

"Oh no," I muttered.

I supposed I had known that it was coming—the first dance being tradition and all, but that didn't stop the blood from rushing to my face. It wasn't the dance, exactly, that bothered me—Edward and I had danced before. I had vague memories of being swirled around the room perched on his toes. It was actually quite fun. The problem was that, once again, I was going to be the center of attention.

Edward touched his hand to my cheek again. "You have no idea how much I'm going to miss that," he said, placing an arm around my waste and pulling me out on to the dance floor. I blushed brighter when the music stopped and Alice announced our arrival to everyone. Then Edward put his hands on both my shoulders and picked me up discretely, setting me on his feet. I felt like a princess. A princess bride.

It wasn't bad at all. Edward did all the work, of course, and I held on and let him take me around the dance floor, feeding off his grace. His eyes never left mine, and after a while, I forgot that there was anyone else in the room with us.

"You look positively radiant, Mrs. Cullen," he whispered, turning me particularly sharply into a move that I was absolutely positive I would never have accomplished without his impossible strength. His voice was triumphant. I frowned. The term Mrs. made me feel like my mother…even my grandmother, and that was delving into a rather sore subject.

He caught the darkening of my expression and misinterpreted it. "Jacob will be fine, Bella. He is strong. He has very good instincts. He knows what he's doing."

My brow furrowed even more. "That's not what I was…"

But the subject of Jacob brought back the image of Edward wincing and trying to keep Tanya from lunging. "Edward, what did Jacob show you before he left?" I asked. Edward's jaw tightened.

"Just random images…" he whispered sourly. "He is very good at finding just the right memories." He pulled me closer and we began to turn again—faster this time.

"What else?"

He looked gravely down at me. "Jacob told me that if I ever left you alone and hurt again…" he flinched as if the possibility gave him more pain. "He would hunt me to the ends of the Earth and kill me himself."

"Oh," was all I could think of in response.

I hadn't even realized that the music had stopped until Charlie cleared his throat behind me.

"Excuse me, Edward, but can the father dance with his little girl?"

"Of course, Charlie," Edward responded, polite as usual with only the slightest glance into my eyes to make sure his last comment had not upset me more than usual. He glided off the dance floor, and with him went any semblance of grace and any hope that I had of not injuring myself in Alice's heels. Charlie grinned uneasily as I took his hand. He was nearly as clumsy as me. I was sure that Emmett would get a kick out of watching us stumble around.

"You really do look perfect today, Bells," he said, not meeting my eyes. We were both watching our feet and trying very hard not to step on anyone else's. "Everything is real nice. Alice did a great job."

"Thanks dad," I said and stumbled slightly. Charlie smiled.

"You know, Edward…he's not that bad of a guy." His lips wrinkled into an expression of awkwardness. I gawked. "He just keeps earning points I don't even want to give him. I can't for the life of me figure out how he convinced you to try for Dartmouth…or the scholarships, but…" He looked up at me for a minute. My toes screamed as they gave under his weight. "Oops! I think he's good for you, Bells."

I blinked back more tears. "Thanks dad," I managed, and threw my arms around him. I looked over his shoulder at Edward. He appeared to be in conversation with Carmen and Eleazar, but I thought I saw the slightest victory smirk disappear quickly from his lips.

"Yeah," Charlie huffed, hugging me back nervously. "Just don't tell him I said that. I'd like to keep him on his toes for a while."

Too late.

After that, it was time to cut the cake. Edward swallowed his piece with only the slightest of sour looks, and then gently gave me mine. Jasper and Emmet looked on with dual frowns, obviously hoping for an all out food fight…either that or imagining what would have happened if there had been a cake at any of their weddings.

Edward took me out on the dance floor after that, and when the music ended, Mike cut in. He was surprisingly agile, but nowhere near as attentive as Edward. I tripped four times trying to follow him around the dance floor. He laughed.

"The first one in the class to get married, and the first one to fall and kill herself at her own reception. That would be a great announcement at the ten year reunion!"

I scowled. After that, dancing with Mike wasn't that fun. I was relieved when Emmett took over, mostly because my feet were beginning to ache and I could use another set of indestructible ones to ride on for a bit. Emmett was chuckling under his breath. I looked suspiciously up at him.

"I was just thinking of the real announcements at the ten year. _Bella_ _Swan married Edward Cullen. He bit her. She died, and they're now living happily ever after as vampires_." He smiled an enormous smile. Even I heard Edward's hiss from beyond the dance floor. Emmett swirled me to the opposite side, passing a joking smirk to Edward along the way.

Phil cut in after Emmett, looking only a bit frightened to interrupt. After Phil came Eric, and after Eric came Tyler. I rather enjoyed Lauren's heated glare that followed us around the dance floor as we reminisced about prom invitations and near death experiences. I realized that I'd had so many since that first accident that being nearly squished by a car hardly seemed worth remembering now.

My feet were in agony, and I had just made up my mind to refuse my next dance invitation and go find Edward when his lips were suddenly on my neck. My knees buckled. He caught me, and I felt him chuckle against my skin.

"I thought you might need a rest," he said taking my hand and leading me slowly off the floor. "If the blush in your cheeks becomes any greater, it may be too much for some of our…guests." He smiled when I looked up at him, alarmed.

"Kidding," he assured me, and then kissed me gently. "Are you ready to go speak to your in-laws?"

I gulped. Edward chuckled and took my hand.

"They'll love you," he reassured. "They already do, actually. I've been talking to them about you while you were dancing." He pulled me over to the darkest table where Carlisle and Esme sat smiling and speaking to two perfectly still figures who were seated in the shadows. They both smiled warmly as Edward pulled out a chair for me and I sat down gratefully.

The tall, dark haired man that had been introduced as Eleazar stood and offered me his hand. "We finally get to speak to the famous Bella," he said genuinely. He had the same accent as Carmen, and his expression was scrutinizing from across the table. I balked under his gaze and any response I would have thought of left me. Carmen seemed to notice this. She whispered something low and quick to Eleazar. He smiled.

"I apologize, Bella, I really should explain myself," he said. "Edward has told us of your…talent, shall we say? My own ability is to recognize the talents of others. I was trying to understand your potential, but I must admit, it is a somewhat inexact science when dealing with humans."

"You…_see_ talents?" I asked tentatively.

"Most," he replied.

"In humans, too?"

"To a weaker extent," he explained, and then turned to Edward. "You're right. She presents an interesting conundrum. I can see absolutely nothing, but I _feel_ that there's some sort of potential." He turned back to me, puzzling. "You certainly are a mystery. I can see why Edward chose you."

I blushed.

"She is the only child I have ever seen who is more comfortable surrounded by werewolves and vampires than others of her kind… the only human to ever leave Volterra alive with full knowledge of its occupants, and the only person in existence to resist Aro, Jane, and Edward…I'd say "mystery" is a bit of an understatement." Carmen laughed, and her laugh brought images of warm summer nights, and the slow trilling rifts of a Spanish guitar in the distance. It was comforting.

She wasn't entirely correct. I was _never _able to resist Edward, but I remained silent and my blush grew deeper as I searched for a subject that would take the focus off of me. Edward—ever eager to avoid any conversation on the reasons behind my strange escape from under the streets of Volterra—beat me to the punch.

"Where did Kate go? I was hoping that Bella would be able to talk to her as well," he asked.

Carmen looked mildly entertained. "Of course," she mused. "Bella would no doubt take an interest in Kate's obsession." She looked around casually. "She must have left for a moment with Tanya, but don't worry, Edward. They'll have time to speak, the two of them…quite a bit of time, in fact."

She smiled slyly. Edward's lips became a thin line, and I recognized my cue to interrupt.

"What is Kate's obsession?" I asked.

"Kate was a mother when she was transformed," explained Edward, tracing his finger casually up and down my arm and sending random chills through my entire body. "She has followed her own familiar line for centuries. She is in contact with many of them."

The idea was fascinating. I was about to ask more when Alice's voice rang out from behind us, jovial, but insistent.

"I didn't put up all these decorations so that you could all just sit in a corner and talk," she scolded and then stared down at me. She reminded me of a teacher disciplining her student, and I realized that that is exactly what she would be in a few more weeks. "There are still at least eight people out there who haven't danced with the bride yet…Jasper included."

Jasper gave a resigned smile behind her and extended his hand to me. "You know there's no point in arguing," he sighed. "Will you allow me the privilege to dance with my newest sister?"

And spoken so elegantly—and accompanied by Jasper's traditional dose of calm confidence that spread over everyone at the table, dancing suddenly seemed like a wonderful idea. I leaned over to kiss Edward quickly on the cheek and let Jasper lead me out onto the floor. It had been nearly empty only a minute before, but it seemed to fill up rapidly as we advanced. Jasper grinned modestly.

"Sorry," he muttered as we began to twirl. "My talent isn't exactly exclusive to one table."

I laughed, thankful that I was able to stand on his toes too as the song became faster and we danced easily through the crowd, appearing as if we both knew what we were doing. I had just about convinced myself to cheat and ask Jasper what elusive place his brother had planned for our honeymoon when Edward appeared at our side with Alice right behind him. They were both extremely pale and both wore identical expressions of stony panic. Both Jasper and I recognized what had happened at once.

"What did you see?" Jasper asked. Alice flashed to his side and was whispering to him in a tone not meant for human ears. The confidence that had been floating over the room was transformed instantly into a fresh barrage of anxiety. Many guests stopped dancing for a moment. Smiles disappeared from nearly everyone's face.

"Jasper," Edward warned quietly, his jaw clenched and his eyes fixed on me. The anxiety disappeared. I turned, frustrated to Edward.

"What happened?" I demanded. He stared at me, debating.

"No secrets, remember!"

A resigned sigh escaped his lips. "We have to go for a while. It seems that Tanya was more offended by Jacob's actions than I thought. There is the possibility of a confrontation."

A cold chill flew up my spine, causing goose bumps to form on my exposed arms and neck. I turned to Alice, determined. "What did you see?"

"Nothing," she hissed. "You know I can't see anything when the dogs are involved. I saw her looking for them, and then…well, _nothing_!" She seemed extremely frustrated by this fact.

"Where?" I demanded again.

"Not far from here," Edward answered. "We won't be gone long."

"I'm going with you!" I insisted. If my best friend was about to be mutilated by my husband's bitter vampire ex-girlfriend, then I was going to be there to do everything I could to stop it! There wasn't time for it to occur to me that my life was beginning to resemble a _very_ strange soap opera.

Predictably, Edward protested, but not-so-predictably, Alice put a hand on his shoulder and stopped the argument before it began.

"You know I saw her with us, Edward, and she's the only one the wolf will listen to," she argued. I had been preparing to make my argument and my mouth was now frozen in the act of pronouncing the first words of it.

"I will _not_ put her in the middle of this. I will not lose the love of my life on our wedding day because of a petty feud between two intolerant…"

The knowingly smug look on my face caused him to stop in mid-sentence. It had not been very long ago at all that the feud had not seemed so petty to him.

"Oh!" Alice exclaimed, her eyes going blank for a moment, and then filling with fresh terror. "We need to go now!"

I looked stubbornly from Edward to Alice. There was a moment of tense silence, and then Edward snarled resentfully.

"I'll carry you when we're out of sight of the party," he instructed.

The triumph from my victory was overcome by fear for Jacob.

"Let's go," I said grimly.

The folds of my dress trailed behind us as I clung to Edward's shoulders, my head tucked toward the nape of his neck to avoid the wind that threatened to destroy whatever miracle Alice had performed on my hair. I concentrated on the sweet smell of his skin, and tried not to think about my best friend being attacked by a strawberry blond blur. The wind was so loud in my ears that I barely heard Edward whispering something back to be in a firm tone.

"I need you to promise me that if something begins between Jacob and Tanya, that you will not do anything to put yourself in danger." His eyes were focused on the forest around him, but I could see that his expression was fixed and determined.

"OK," I said too quickly. It was taken away by the wind, but Edward seemed to hear it. He saw through it immediately.

"I mean it, Bella," he said, and his tone left no doubt of that. "I will leave you right here and come back for you if I don't think I can trust you. You are entirely too prone to self sacrifice, and I won't have you losing your life while I'm trying to save your friend. Remember, you hold both our lives in your hands now."

I didn't have to respond. He could tell the effect that his words had by the racing of my heart against his shoulder. A satisfied grin crept onto his face as the forest rushed by around us.

"You don't need to worry, Bella," he tried to reassure me. "Jacob is strong. He's practically immortal."

"_Practically_," I mocked. "And Tanya's only got about a thousand years of experience on him." My frustration suddenly seemed to get the better of me. "Don't you see how pointless this all is? Jacob's going to be killed because of the misconceptions of…"

"Don't Bella," Edward interrupted gravely. "That's the kind of thought process that could lead to your death in this situation."

I tried to glare at the side of his angelic face, but the wind brought tears to my eyes and took away the desired effect. "Alice didn't see me dead," I squeaked. He sighed, frustrated.

"Alice didn't see what happened at all. She only saw you…" His lips curled into a frustrated snarl. "I hate doing this! It goes against every instinct I have!"

"Shouldn't you be used to that by now?' I grinned. It was meant to clear the tension, but Edward simply growled under his breath and stopped suddenly—smoothly. He pulled me off of his back and set me down in front of him. I could hear the low growling barks of the wolves very near, and then Tanya's voice high, sweet—furious.

"Let me _go_, Kate! It was that one! I _know_ it was!"

My eyes widened, and I started urgently toward the screaming without a second thought. Edward appeared in front of me, pushing me behind him with one arm, shielding me from view, and so I had to strain to see when we rounded the corner. Tanya and Kate were the closest to us. Kate was facing away from the three wolves trying to restrain Tanya as she lunged toward the protective circle of fur that seemed dangerously near to the two struggling vampires. I recognized the three wolves instantly. Quil, Embry, and Seth were bristling, set in a protective circle around a tall, fearless figure. My breath caught as I realized that it was Jacob, shirtless and glaring with disgust at Tanya. He hadn't phased. Why hadn't he phased?

Emmett, Alice, and Jasper were standing on the sidelines. The sense of calm that Jasper was submitting didn't seem to have an effect on either vampire or wolf. Tanya noticed Edward's arrival, but she did not acknowledge him as he joined his brothers and sister. My arrival seemed to have a greater effect on Jacob. He seemed instantly nervous, gazing in my direction with incredulity and then fixing Edward with an accusatory glare. Edward didn't notice. He was lost in Tanya's thoughts.

"It was you, you filthy animal!" Tanya screamed at Jacob. Her voice reached inhuman levels. "I know it was you! You're the largest. I understand pack behavior!"

"You don't know a thing about us, bloodsucker!" Jacob snapped back.

Edward turned toward me, gazing at me pleadingly—reminding me of my promise before turning his attention toward Tanya. "It wasn't him, Tanya," he said soothingly, his eyes coming to rest, unblinking, on hers. A flicker of jealousy ran through me, and I brushed it away, ashamed of such petty emotions at a time like this. "He was too young then. It couldn't have been him."

"Stay out of this, Edward!" Tanya snarled, passing him a look of disgust. "They killed Laurent! They killed one of _us_!"

I opened my mouth to protest—to explain to Tanya exactly why the wolves had gone after Laurent—but one deadly glance back from Edward closed my mouth.

Jacob let out a sarcastic yelp that could have been laughter. "And how many had _he_ killed before we took him out! Who else would he have killed?"

I saw his eyes flicker to me again, but he said nothing of the reasons behind their hunt that fated day. I guessed that neither he nor Edward had any desire to bring me into range of Tanya's temper.

"They were defending their lands, Tanya," Edward said calmly. "They didn't know that Laurent had joined your family."

"That doesn't matter!" Tanya snapped. "We didn't sign your treaty! We have a right to avenge a member of our family!"

I flinched. Laurent hadn't even been loyal to their family! He had cheated! His eyes had been just as red as Victoria's when he had appeared in the clearing that afternoon. I shivered in spite of my anger at the memory of Edward's cold, even, imagined voice finally advising me to beg as the predator moved nearer, his intentions all too clear. I said nothing to Tanya, remembering my promise to Edward.

I watched as Jacob's body began to shake, his arms shimmering briefly and his form beginning to shift as he remembered the reasoning behind his first hunt as well. "We have a right to defend our lands from leeches!" he hissed. I rolled my eyes, thinking of how much easier mediation would be if we could just eliminate all of the derogatory terms.

Tanya strained against Kate again, who looked helplessly back at us. Alice moved forward swiftly to help, giving the wolves a wide berth.

"Which one killed him then, if it wasn't you, _child_?" Her livid tone made her last word sound as if it she were spitting venom at him. Jacob sneered and shimmered again. Edward glanced quickly over at him and hissed under his breath. Neither party was going to make a peaceful resolution easy.

"They are _all_ children," Edward said solemnly, grabbing my hand in one of his and putting his other one calmly out toward Jacob in warning. His eyes didn't move from Tanya. "Are you going to sacrifice years of control to kill a group of children?"

He glanced meaningfully over at Jasper and a fresh wave of calm spread over us. I saw Jasper moving silently toward us. My frustration disappeared entirely. The shaking that had taken over Jacob's body suddenly left him, and the growling of the wolves around him became subdued, but did not disappear entirely. Tanya was not affected.

"Don't play on my sympathy, Edward! I haven't had sympathy for centuries!" Tanya yelled, and made another effort to lunge toward Jacob. This time, both Alice and Kate strained to hold her back. Tanya screeched in rage and lashed out at her sister. "Look at them, Kate! They're no more children than Edward! They're cold blooded murderers, and they know our weaknesses!"

Kate blanched, but her resolve remained…for the moment. I watched Edward's jaw tense as he listened to her thoughts, and then he let go of my hand and began moving slowly toward the three struggling figures. I tried to follow, but Jasper was suddenly there, pushing himself in front of me. I frowned. It was so unbelievably frustrating sometimes, being the weakest link. Emmett moved closer to the wolves, ready to detain Jacob if it came to that.

"We don't have weaknesses, Tanya," Edward was saying. His voice was liquid smooth—hypnotizing. Jacob's sarcastic sniff rang in the air behind him, but Edward did not acknowledge it. He was deathly pale now, his jaw tense and his face reflecting something very close to panic. I wondered exactly what he had read in Kate's and Tanya's thoughts. "We're too powerful to trouble ourselves with half-breed children." The wolves growled, but Edward put a hand out to silence them. Amazingly, they obeyed. "We've lived too long for petty grudges, don't you think? Would killing a dog give you any satisfaction whatsoever?"

For the first time, Tanya's eyes left Jacob. They turned to Edward, still livid, but there was a glint of reason in them. Edward took in a slow deep breath, and Tanya mimicked him ceasing to strain against her sister and Alice. The tension in the air continued to be palpable, but there was a faint hope there as well. Perhaps this could end without confrontation.

I felt myself relaxing behind Jasper, and turning my attention toward my best friend. I smiled complacently at him, hoping that Edward's words would not be misconstrued as possible insults toward them. There were _way_ too many volatile tempers in this clearing at the moment. I was only allowed a moment of relief before I recognized the challenge on Jacob's face, and realized that he was about to react exactly as I had feared. There was one tiny minute of expectation before Jacob allowed what could possibly be the most stupid words that he had ever said to escape his mouth.

"I can see his point. Ripping your bloodsucker to pieces didn't really give me the amount of satisfaction I'd expected either."

Edward froze. Everyone stopped moving for a moment, waiting for the inevitable reaction. Strangely, I reacted first.

"Jacob, you _moron_!" I managed before Kate's restraint waivered and she joined her sister. They passed a confused Alice in a blur and headed directly toward the circle of wolves. Edward, Jasper, and Emmett all disappeared suddenly from around me, appearing in between the wolves and the two enraged women, stopping them entirely too close to Jacob's still unphased human form for comfort. Tanya and Kate were both beyond words now. Edward was furious.

"You idiot dog!" he shouted over the screaming of the Denali sisters. "Take your pack and go now before one of you dies!" He was straining visibly against his red-blond counterpart. "I can only fight against her will and mine for so long! Leave. NOW!"

Hate was the dominant emotion, and I saw Jasper struggling to overcome the desire to carry out ten separate fantasies that all ended in murder. Jacob looked around at Edward and his brothers. The strain of fighting against their own instinct was burned into each face. Finally, he glanced over at my desperate face, and his resolve broke. His shoulders slumped, and he began to back slowly away.

"Sorry, Bells," he said in defeat as he turned toward the forest. His three companions followed, still bristling and vigilant. Tanya screamed.

"You killed my family, mongrel! If you walk away from me now, it's only a matter of time before I kill yours!"

It happened so fast that I didn't have time to remember my promise to Edward, or even my own mortality. One moment, we were at the point of a very fragile stand-down between vampires and werewolves, and the next moment, the loose black sweats that Jacob had been wearing were floating around me in shredded pieces and he was headed toward Tanya as the largest, angriest wolf I had ever seen.

And Edward stood in between them.

"Jacob, _no_!"

There was time for my heart to slip into my stomach. There was time for my ears to register the desperation in Edward's voice as he screamed after me.

"_Bella, stop_!"

But he was locked in the act of restraining Tanya, and he could do nothing more than yell as I lunged forward to place myself between my husband and my best friend. My wedding dress caught on a fallen branch, and I heard the fabric tear as if from a distance. I pushed in front of the furious russet furred creature just as he leapt at Tanya…and Edward. The force behind his leap knocked me to the ground, and I was lost in a moment in a random chaos of fur and razor sharp teeth as the full weight of a werewolf came down on me.

"Please!" I managed before my breath was knocked out of me. There was time enough for the stupidity of what I had just done to occur to me, and then Jacob was off me. I waited for the sounds of battle, but nothing came to my ears. I opened my eyes, only then realizing that I had closed them in anticipation of my own death, and was surprised to see an extremely pale…extremely furious Edward glaring at me with his gloriously white teeth bared and still restraining Tanya while Jacob glowered down at me through his wolf eyes. He did not advance again. I could sense a mixture of fear and shame and anger in his canine expression. I stood up, shocked, and unable to imagine the willpower it had taken a werewolf in full attack mode to stop. An image of Emily's mangled face appeared out of nowhere. I shivered, and held out one hand to him.

"Thank you," I whispered. It didn't seem like near enough, suddenly. He growled threateningly.

Edward reacted to this. "Go. NOW, Jacob Black!"

I held my other hand out toward Edward, to silence him. There was no need. Everything around me was silence. Everyone seemed to be frozen, staring at me with identical expressions of disbelief. I didn't care. Quil, Embry, and Seth ambled up behind Jacob, shocked. It was to them that I addressed my next request.

"Please make sure he's safe until he's out of her range," I said. The smaller grey wolf seemed to nod. He nudged his infinitely larger companion, and they all turned to trot out of the clearing. Jacob gave me one last look—shocked and apologetic—before he disappeared.

Tanya let out one final shriek of rage, and then stopped struggling against Edward. Kate had already turned from Emmett and Jasper to comfort her sister. No one moved around us. They all continued to stare at me. I blushed and imagined their expressions as worry—saw the second thoughts they seemed to all be having about making me their sister forming in each angelic head. I looked down at my beautiful ring, ashamed. In one way or the other, I _was_ their sister anyway. I twisted it over and over on my finger in a gesture that already threatened to become my nervous habit of choice.

Edward's eyes were huge, horrified. He seemed abnormally stiff as he turned to his brothers. "Take them back to the reception," he ordered them in a frightening monotone that was reserved for the times when his fury was barely under control. "Make sure they stay there." His eyes flashed to Tanya. "I'll speak to _you_ when I return." His last words were intended to be threatening. Tanya glowered, but she too was too busy staring at me to respond.

One last cloud of calm drifted over us all as Jasper broke the strange spell, taking Tanya by the arm and escorting her slowly out of the clearing followed closely by Emmett and Kate. They looked too casual, like two young couples on their way to their first dance. Alice gave me a sympathetic glance, and then turned to follow her brothers and cousins.

"Alice, stay with us, please," Edward demanded in a falsely pleasant tone that only made his request more deadly. Alice stopped and watched longingly as the other four disappeared into the forest. Then, the storm turned immediately to me.

"What on earth were you _thinking_!" he boomed, his hands clenched into fists. I flinched away from his rage, and Edward turned from me for a moment in anger. "You could have _died_ right here in front of me! I just stood there and watched him nearly _kill _you!"

"I'm sorry," I said weakly. It came out like a question.

"Sorry!" He paced back and forth, raging. Alice faded awkwardly into the background as we waited for the tide of his temper to ebb. Finally, he whirled to face me again, his eyes still smoldering, but there was more than anger there. I recognized the panic that hid just beyond plain view.

"You were almost taken from me right before my eyes…" His voice trailed off, and the reality of his own statement seemed to trigger the calm after the storm. He pushed his fingers to his temples and inhaled slowly, deeply once…twice…three times. I returned to playing with the new addition to my left ring finger and waited for him to speak again.

Edward watched me silently, broodingly for another long moment, focusing on the ring as well. Then he grasped my hand, his own hand stiff and trembling as he attempted to regain control of his temper.

"You promised me eternity today, Bella," he said, and his voice was trembling with effort as well. "You promised you wouldn't do anything to take that away from me, and then you go against every human instinct and place yourself in line for one of the most certain deaths imaginable!. Do you have any idea how close you came to breaking both of your promises today!"

I couldn't meet his eyes. "I didn't think," I mumbled. I felt like a child being scolded by her father for running out into the street. "Jacob was angry, and he was coming at you so fast…"

"Me!" His barely assembled composure broke again and his voice became a mixture of fury and incredulity. "You jumped in front of a raging werewolf to save _me_! I'm immortal, Bella! _You're not_!"

_Yet! _ I almost cried, but my reason got the better of me, and I moved on to my next attempt.

"Jacob wouldn't have killed me!" I argued. It was a weak front. I had not known for sure how in control of himself Jacob had been when I had put myself in between the two of them, and I was sure that the uncertainty was painted on my face. Edward's frown deepened and he exhaled sharply.

"You couldn't have known that, Bella!" He squeezed my hand a little too tightly, letting go with a shameful look when I winced. I wanted to reach over and take back his hand, but his jaw was tight, his eyes livid. "Jacob was going for a kill! I _saw_ that in his mind! He was acting on pure instinct, and you have no idea how difficult it is to forgo instinct." His expression darkened. "I don't understand how he was able to…I wouldn't have been able to…"

He trailed off and turned away for a moment. I thought I knew exactly how his last sentence would have ended, and though I didn't believe him—though I had personally witnessed his ability to go against his own instinct, it still caused a chill to run down my spine. I shivered, and he became my protector again, slipping off his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders.

"Are you cold?" The anger had burned away instantly, leaving only concern. I took in the scent from his jacket feeling the goose bumps rising on my arms.

"No," I admitted, feeling the possible outcomes of the last half hour suddenly crashing down on me. "I just…he could have…" I couldn't finish.

"Finally, a human reaction," he said, some semblance of a grin appearing on his face. He took me into his arms and held me as tight as he dared until I was no longer tense. Then he held me out a arm's length, looking me over disapprovingly. "It seems we've ruined your beautiful dress. What will your father think you've been doing?"

I smiled and shrugged as he pulled me into an embrace. "Let him use his imagination," I sighed. "It can't be worse than the reality."

Edward exhaled forcibly again, frowning down at me. "Alice?" he called pleasantly without taking his eyes from mine. A tiny silhouette reappeared like a ghost from the darkness. "Can you fix it?"

"Of course I can," Alice replied, pulling a small purse out of nowhere and applying herself immediately to the tear in my dress, obviously relieved that none of Edward's anger had fallen onto her. "Of course there's nothing we can do about the grass stains." Her hands were invisible as she moved around me, sewing and appraising at the same time. "We're going to have to do something about your hair too. Why couldn't the werewolf have stopped _before_ he tackled you?"

I sighed unenthusiastically and added that last question to my ample list of things only heard in my impossibly crazy life. Edward's smirk was breathtaking.


	5. El Huerto de la Niebla

An hour later, we were watching the light of a million tiny white bulbs fading into the distance from the back of a Volvo that now more resembled a paper machete igloo than a car. Emmett had created the excuse that Edward and I had caught both him and Jasper arm deep in the traditional toilet paper and shaving cream car decorations, and the crowd had eaten it up...even Charlie, who hadn't seem to notice the grass stains…or hadn't wanted to mention them. The crowd had still been laughing when Alice had come to insist on the final traditions.

I had been aiming for Angela when I threw my bouquet, but it had landed almost directly in Jess's waiting hands. Edward had flung my garter as high as it would go, and it had fluttered finally into Emmett's lap where he had been sitting with the rest of his family. Jess had blushed enough for both of them at Emmett's overtly frightening smile, and we had all enjoyed a secret laugh before Alice had whipped me away to play dress-up one last time. I had seen Edward making his way subtly over to the table where Jasper still stood guard over a grim Tanya.

Finally, robed in stylish silk and extremely uncomfortable, I had waved a last goodbye to my mother and father through a thick shower of rice and taken refuge in the car/igloo without any regrets. I had said my proper farewells to them the day before, though they had had no idea how final that had truly been. Only Jacob's goodbye had carried the true weight of the finality that accompanied it. I pictured his face—broken and horrified even through a mask of wolf features—as he finally turned his back on us all and loped from the meadow. That hadn't been the way that I had wanted to say goodbye. My frown betrayed me.

"Are you worried about your parents or Jacob?" Edward's question cut through my reverie. We had just turned onto the highway, and I looked over at his face, reflected a milky blue green in the lights of the dash, more to avoid noticing the constant climb of the speedometer than anything else. I recognized his poker face.

"Jacob," I admitted reluctantly. "How can I know that she won't go after him again?" I thought about my hot-tempered friend for a moment, and then added, "Or that _he_ won't go after _her_?"

Edward sighed. "Would it be enough for you if I told you _I_ was certain that neither of those scenarios will happen?" he asked.

"Maybe," I brooded. "If you explain."

"I saw it in both their minds," he sighed. "And if that's not enough, I made sure that Tanya would be on a plane back to Alaska tomorrow. I asked Jasper and Emmett to accompany her to the airport to make sure."

"Is Kate going too?"

He shook his head. "Kate is not a threat to anyone. She was simply reacting on instinct. She feels horrible, and she asked me to relay her apologies." His brow creased. "I told you how difficult it is to overcome instinct."

"What did you say to them when I was with Alice?"

"I told Tanya what I didn't dare to say in the middle of the confrontation," he said, his voice darkening. "I told her that I owe Jacob more than she will ever understand." His fingers traced my neck in the darkness, found a stray lock of hair and began twirling it lovingly. "I told her that the treaty that has been in place for over sixty years is not about to be undermined by her need to avenge a being that would have turned back into a predator without a second thought." His jaw tightened. "She didn't like that."

"The truth hurts," I whispered without an ounce of sympathy. Laurent had been more than ready to murder me. Edward continued.

"I told her that she needed a few years to cool down. She agreed." I could tell by his strained expression that the words "I agree" had probably never really entered their conversation. I didn't push the matter. There was still another side to worry about.

"Jacob said he was going north," I began.

"He won't go after Tanya," Edward replied, reflecting a sureness that I couldn't understand.

"How do you know that? He could have been thinking that he wasn't going to do anything then, but once he's had time to run…"

"He wouldn't consciously kill any of us that you consider family," he explained, and his voice was rough. I contemplated the idea of considering Tanya a part of my family, and came to the bitter conclusion that if she was kin to the Cullens, I would have to accept her. No one liked _all_ of their in-laws, right?

We drove in pensive silence for a while before Edward spoke, his voice reflective.

"You scared him to death you know?" Edward whispered. "He thought he had killed you for a moment." I saw the hand that wasn't playing with my hair tighten around the steering wheel.

"Was he angry?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Furious," Edward assured. "With me…for bringing you."

I snorted. "He had two vampires ready to tear him to pieces and he was worried about me being there?" Jacob could be so frustrating at times.

Edward was smiling one of his triumphant smiles. "Yes, it _can_ be incredibly frustrating when someone you care about seems to worry less about their own life than that of everyone else, can't it?"

I flinched. "I just don't see why he'd be angry that I'd come. I'm as much a part of it all as he is."

Edward kept his eyes on the stretch of highway flying by at impossible speeds, but his voice was severe. "Bella, I've tried to explain this to you before. You have a very distorted view of yourself. You don't seem to understand how important you are in the lives of everyone around you. Jacob left because he couldn't watch you die." His jaw stiffened in reaction to his final sentence. "And because of me—because I took you to the clearing—he almost killed you himself."

I shivered. Edward gave a weak chuckle as the car began to slow. I looked out the window in shock. We were entering Seattle already. I hadn't even noticed the lights on the horizon! In no time at all, we were pulling into the Seattle Airport, and I turned back to him, glad of the opportunity to change the subject.

"Will you tell me where we're going now?" I asked. He smiled mysteriously and said nothing.

Edward carried all of the luggage, of course, and he laughed at my victorious expression when we boarded a plane bound for New York. "We'll see New York someday," he promised, "But it is just a connection tonight. There are too many stray thoughts for my taste."

We watched a movie during the flight. I wrapped myself in Edward's stone arms, listened to the protagonist go on about a meteor that was headed straight for the Earth, and reveled in the fact that this was my new forever. Edward encouraged me to sleep. We had taken a midnight flight out of Seattle, and it would be another five hours before we arrived in New York. I tried to protest, but by the time the meteor reached Earth's orbit on the screen in front of me, I was sleeping dreamlessly. I awoke to Edward's gentle prompting and realized that I had even slept through the landing.

I surrendered my passport to him at the counter in JFK International Airport, eager to discover our next destination, but I was thwarted once again when he escorted me, not to another crowded gate full of waiting passengers where flight destinations were clearly marked, but to the relative isolation of the terminal reserved for private jets. The lone woman at the counter in front of our gate smiled appreciatively at Edward as she looked over our passports.

"Have a wonderful vacation, Mr. Cullen," she sighed, and perhaps I was imagining the extra trill in her voice. I didn't think so though. She turned to hand me back my passport, and her face wasn't nearly as cheerful. "You too, Ms. Swan."

"Where are we headed?" I asked her quietly, as naturally as I could manage. I saw her face brighten and her mouth begin to form the answer I desired just before Edward caught my arm and dragged me toward the door.

"_That's_ a surprise, Bella," he reprimanded me, stopping the answer on the suddenly confused woman's lips and flashing his brilliant smile at her. She blushed. "And she's Mrs. Cullen now. Thank you very much for your help."

_Mrs. Cullen_. The strangely unexpected pleasure of that title took away the disappointment of yet another failed attempt at foiling Edward's surprise. And then he was pushing me through the door.

"Very clever," he whispered with a grin.

"I do what I can," I responded as we entered into the most luxurious plane I had ever been on in my life. My mouth dropped open.

Renee and Charlie had not been the most wealthy parents in the world, and so the arbitrary plane rides that marked the results of their shared custody of me had always been in economy class. I was not prepared for the spacious carpeted paradise-on-wings that I was gently ushered into. It was better than any hotel I'd ever stayed in, with elegant cherry wood paneling and a large plasma television situated directly under a spiraling staircase that must have led to the service areas. I marveled at the impossibility that there could be another level. It was already larger than Charlie's house!

I stared back, speechless at Edward who was watching my reaction with what appeared to be satisfaction. He pointed out the comfortable looking overstuffed sofa that lined one windowed wall. The sun was already shining in through the line of rounded portholes. I sighed. It was almost nine in the morning in New York and I still felt exhausted. Where had my wedding night gone?

"It's going to be another seven hours to our destination," he whispered. "I thought you would sleep better this time if you had space to lie down." He wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "I thought perhaps a movie would help you sleep, but if you would like me to show you the bedroom…"

"There's a bedroom?" I exclaimed. Edward chuckled.

"Two actually, but the one upstairs is much more comfortable."

He looked down into my eyes appraisingly as I searched for the words to express what I was feeling at this moment. His beautiful face did nothing to help my temporary mute state. "Are you angry with me? I know you don't like extravagant gifts, but in all fairness, this is a gift for us both."

"Whose?" I managed.

"It's a part of Carmen and Eleazar's gift to us…only on loan, of course," he explained, laughing quietly. "They don't even lend it out to their own family. They were very impressed by you."

Still lacking the ability to respond properly, and strangely unable to feel anything more than utter gratitude for such an elaborate gift, I conformed with taking his hand and meeting his eyes with a smirk of my own.

"What, no pool?" I asked smoothly. His smile was radiant as we made our way to the couch and I curled into his welcoming arms again, pulling one of the blankets in between us and around me. We flipped through the channels for a while on the enormous television, and I tried to pry more answers out of Edward as we waited for clearance to leave New York. It seemed to take a long time, and the sofa was so comfortable with my own strange, supernatural pillow.

I was asleep again before the plane even made it off of the runway.

Edward was stroking my hair when I awoke in the darkness. I lay still for a few more moments, taking in the sweet scent of his clothes before turning my face to his patient smile.

"Good morning," he breathed, and bent to kiss my forehead. I glanced out the windows. The plane was descending through a beautifully pure blanket of night sky, allowing for a perfect view of the thousands of lights from whatever mysterious city we were entering into.

"Don't you mean good evening?" I corrected groggily.

Edward chuckled. "Don't worry. You didn't oversleep. It's still early afternoon in Forks."

"What time is it in…wherever we are?" I prompted, stretching.

"Quite late, actually," he admitted. "I probably shouldn't have allowed you to sleep as long as I did, but you looked so peaceful."

"Are you at least going to tell me what country we're in?" I begged. His mocking smile was his only response as the plane touched down on what I could only assume was foreign soil. I scowled out of the window in search of any signs that would give me enough of an answer to wipe the smirk off his face. I didn't recognize the airport, of course. I had only been to one airport abroad, and I hadn't exactly taken the time to memorize it as Alice and I had raced to save Edward. I frowned. I hated suspense!

My frustration finally came to an end when we exited the plane and we passed our two pilots. Edward suddenly turned and grinned knowingly back at me. One of the men grabbed my shoulder and held out his hand to me as I passed.

"Bienvenidos a España, Sra. Cullen," he announced jovially.

Spain.

"Thanks…uh…gracias," I stammered back, my mind working to understand possibly the only line that four years of high school Spanish had succeeded in teaching me. Edward broke into a quiet laughter.

"Madrid," he clarified. "I thought that we should start in a country where we both know the language."

I was suddenly too excited for the usual sarcastic remark that would have come in response…something that revolved around the truly minimal amount of Spanish that I had picked up in my two years of daydreaming through Spanish class. _Spain_! Of course! Why hadn't it occurred to me earlier? Carmen and Eleazar were both from Spain. It seemed only logical that if we were using their jet, it would be headed to their home country.

I tried to remember everything I had heard about Spain from Mrs. Goff or my teacher from before in Phoenix, and I fell into only the usual stereotypes: bullfights, Flamenco, beaches…and endless sunlight. My lips curved into a secret smile as I imagined how we would kill the time between sunrise and sunset if that particular stereotype turned out to be true.

But the mystery continued, much to my chagrin, and it turned out that Madrid was not our final destination either. Edward had reserved a car…the fastest model available, of course, and I gazed out its dark windows as the beautiful architecture and innumerable fountains of Madrid slowly faded into our taillights.

"We're not staying?" I asked with dismay.

"We will," he promised enigmatically as the speedometer crawled to dangerous numbers. I chanced a glance at the dash, but quickly turned my attention to the silhouetted scenery passing by instead. The speed looked even more dangerous in kilometers. "Madrid is absolutely beautiful, but much the same as New York." He touched his finger to his temple and his expression grew regretful. "Too many people…too many thoughts."

We continued steadily south for a very long time. Edward called out the names of the towns as they appeared in the darkness. He pointed out fields full of olive trees that served as shade for the infamous Spanish bulls that were supposed to be grazing beneath , but their bulky black forms were all shrouded in a thick darkness that only Edward's eyes could penetrate and he soon gave up, settling for playing with a lock of my hair as I silently contemplated the final few days of my life.

Because that was exactly what it was—there was no avoiding that fact. I had pledged Edward my life, and made that promise official in front of everyone that I knew and loved. That had been my side of the agreement, and now, the only parts left were the promises that he had made to me the night I had agreed to marry him. That cold reality hung in the air, suddenly causing a chill to creep up my spine. I would die in Spain.

"Won't you tell me what you're thinking?"

His voice was curious and concerned as it cut through my thoughts, turning them instantly to more pleasant possibilities. Before I breathed my last human breath, there was still another promise that Edward had yet to keep. The shiver that ran through me then as I looked over at him had nothing to do with fear. I blushed.

"I'm wondering how much longer we're going to be driving." This was true. My musings had created an inevitable impatience. I looked at the clock. It had been flashing 11:30 when we had pulled out into Madrid traffic. Almost three hours had passed since then, driving at Edward's speed, and still, I saw no prominent lights in the darkness that would indicate a city, or even a resort. I frowned, trying to remember my geography. "Shouldn't we be hitting the Mediterranean soon?"

His smile revealed perfect teeth that reflected the dash lights. "We're already there," he announced. I stared out into the darkness and realized that we had been driving for quite some time alongside a very high stone fence that would have blocked anything from view. Edward turned into a drive that led to a very secure gate. I looked at the name that was welded in an elegant black metal above it.

_El Huerto de la Niebla_.

There was a guard station at the entrance, and Edward spoke to the man who appeared in a Spanish that was so fluid I could only pick out our names, and the words _mujer_, and _bienvenidos_ once again. I cringed at how little I realized I had learned in high school as the guard smiled at me and the gate opened electronically. Edward looked over at me. I met his eyes expectantly.

"El Huerto de la Niebla?" I asked. He smiled.

"The other part of Carmen and Eleazar's gift to us," he explained. "This is their private estate. It's been in Carmen's possession…more or less…for over four centuries." He turned onto another well paved road and began to speed up again. "It is very expansive in modern Spanish standards, and the security is impenetrable."

We drove for another ten minutes, and my impatience was beginning to become a factor again when we rounded a corner and a beautiful, turn of the century mansion came suddenly into view. It was placed strategically high on one of the only cliffs for as far as eye could see, and so close to the edge that I could swear a part of it was actually hanging. All of the lights were on in a welcoming gesture as we pulled into a palm lined drive and came to a stop in front. Illuminated as it was, the house seemed like a palace straight out of a modern day fairy tale. I got out of the car, amazed.

"What do you think?" Edward asked, appearing silently behind me, sweeping me off my feet and into his arms. I let out a surprised squeak.

"I…" Struggling for words again. Great. "It's beautiful," I sighed finally, nuzzling his neck as he carried me effortlessly over the threshold.

The inside of the house was even more of a surprise. We entered into a room that was as large as the Cullen's parlor and open all the way to the back of the house, which, just like in the Edward's home, was an entire wall of glass. I marveled at the glistening marble floors and the innumerable amount of art that decorated every wall as I made my way forward toward the muffled sound of the waves that seemed to be calling me out to the balcony. Edward had disappeared momentarily to bring in the luggage, but his hand appeared on mine as I pushed open the double doors and he accompanied me outside.

It was astonishing. I was speechless as I stared out at the glistening water that reflected calmly in the light of the moon. The balcony hung impossibly far out over the edge of the cliff, and from somewhere far below us, I could hear the rush of the waves shattering against the rocks below, turning into a calming mist that drifted on the sea breeze and brought the briny smell of the Mediterranean to us far above.

Edward's breath was suddenly on my neck, his lips tracing a line from my shoulder to my ear and back again.

"This has always been an impressive view," he said against my skin. I drew in a sharp breath and my pulse sped to dangerous levels. He pulled away for a moment...only far enough to look into my eyes. "Now, with you finally here to complete it, I think that it has become my favorite."

I stared into his eyes, reflected almost as silver as his skin in the moonlight, and contemplated the infinite expanse of ocean laid out behind him. I couldn't think of anything that could create a greater happiness than I felt at this moment. Edward had chosen well, and I too had made my choice. It would not be tonight, but this would be the place…the last view I saw with my human eyes.

Edward wrapped his arms around me once again and stared out at the moon. We watched the distant waves as they slowly gathered force in the moonlit ocean below us in silence…followed their progress until they broke against the shore. I didn't want to meet his eyes just yet. I wasn't ready to ruin the moment when my expression gave away just how much I wanted him right now, or just how much I wanted this to be the place. He seemed equally pensive behind me with his arms around my waste and his fingers absentmindedly tracing the line of my arm. There was no hiding the way that my heart reacted every time he reached my wrist and began another slow journey towards my shoulder. I sighed, half out of pleasure and half out of frustration at my own very human reflexes. I felt Edward glance down.

"You must be exhausted," he whispered into my hair. I laughed.

"You've got to be kidding! I must have slept at least 8 hours on the plane."

I felt him chuckle behind me. "Nearly 12 actually, but there is a nine hour difference in time between Spain and Seattle, and I'm not sure if that's something you can surpass by sleeping on a plane."

"It is if the couch on the plane was more comfortable than the bed in your house," I assured him.

He contemplated that for a moment. "All right," he conceded. "Are you hungry then? Carmen had the pantry stocked." He chuckled quietly to himself. "I believe she enjoyed that immensely actually. It's been nearly a millennium since she last bought food."

I sighed. "Edward, will you stop ruining the moment by constantly worrying about me? I'm _fine_. I'm not tired, I'm not hungry, and I'm on my _honeymoon_!"

Edward fell silent. I wondered if my response had been too harsh, but I felt his hand in my hair, brushing it to one side to kiss the back of my neck.

"Fair enough," he whispered, and goose bumps appeared on my arms. "Is it ruining the moment to tell you how beautiful you are in the moonlight?"

My breath caught and it took a very long while for me to find a response. "No," I managed in a very breathy whisper. "I think that's allowed." He laughed and the sweet scent of his breath enveloped me as his lips moved to my ear.

"I love you, Bella," he whispered, tracing a line with his lips down my neck to my collar bone. I felt an electricity surge through me, and I had to physically stop myself from losing control of my reactions. Instead, I turned slowly in his arms, and kissed him back, as gently as desire would allow. I would not let this moment be ruined by raging hormones.

But he was already pulling back, grabbing both of my shoulders and holding me at arm's length. I stifled a sigh of frustration, but my expression was not as easily hidden. He chuckled lightly as he stared intently into my eyes.

"Bella, I promised that I would try," he assured. "But it doesn't need to be the first thing that we do. We haven't seen the house yet...the beach. And you haven't eaten more than a piece of wedding cake in 24 hours. You have to be starving."

I sighed in frustration…not because his "better judgment" had once again triumphed, but because, once he had mentioned it, I had to admit that he was right. My stomach was dangerously close to creating the first miniature black hole on Earth. My shoulders sank in resignation.

"I _could _use a good twenty minute tour of the shower," I admitted. A smug smile appeared on his face.

"I'll prepare something for you to eat while you are enjoying the hot water."

As much as I hated to admit it, the shower was glorious. I stood beneath the luxury jets for a full half hour allowing the shower to fill up with steam and take away a tension that I hadn't even realized was present. I felt almost weak when I finally turned off the water and followed an amazing scent down the hall and into the kitchen. Edward had made a true Italian feast—enough mushroom ravioli for five people. I smiled at the detail and gratefully ate two helpings, and then followed him out onto the balcony again. We stood side by side, staring out at the ocean and contemplating a walk on the beach below us.

"You haven't told me yet if you like the idea of spending your honeymoon in Spain," he said quietly without looking over. He seemed worried.

"I love it, Edward," I reassured. "It's always been on the top of my list of places to visit. You know that." I stared up at the stars. They were brighter that I had ever seen them before. "I hope you aren't planning on playing tourist too much though. Haven't you heard the expression, 'The sun never sets on the Spanish empire'?"

He laughed without looking away from the water. "I believe that was meant in a different context. Alice assured me that there will be clouds coming in over the entire southern coast three days from now. We can visit Seville…perhaps Valencia if you'd like."

His voice was rougher than normal. Was he worried about me being bored in _Spain_? I smirked over at him in an attempt to reassure him. "Whatever will we do for the next three…?"

But that was as far as I got because his eyes met mine then, and his cool lips suddenly pressed eagerly against my own, his arms folding around me almost protectively. I detected no caution in this kiss, and my heart raced as my hands slid slowly into his tousled hair. I folded into his chest, feeling every cold, marbled muscle beneath his light shirt.

I expected him to pull back then, but his arms wrapped tighter around me, his hands caressing my neck, his fingers weaving into my hair. His kiss deepened, his lips parting, and I anticipated the blush in my cheeks before I actually felt it. A tiny moan escaped Edward's lips, and he pulled away slightly…reluctantly.

"Bella…" he began uncertainly, but his voice trembled. I had never heard such desire in that voice before…such uncertainty.

"I love you, Edward," I whispered, mostly because that was all that my lungs would allow at the moment. I let my lips trace the line of his neck just behind his ear, and a sharp intake of breath told me that there would be no more protest on his part. My heart skipped a beat. This was it. This was the only thing I wanted in the world.

His cold lips brushed gently against my trembling lower lip before desire overtook us both and his kiss was suddenly more aggressive than he had ever allowed himself before. I returned it with a desire that had been mounting for months, suddenly finding myself pushed back against the balcony rail. My eyes widened, and I stifled a moan. Too late. Edward noticed, and he looked into my eyes. There was no mistaking the desire that was behind the gold tonight. My breath stopped.

"Bella, I don't want…" he was struggling for words. This was the second time in a 48 hour period that he had been rendered speechless.

"You must promise me that if I hurt you…"

"You won't," I interrupted, pulling myself into his frame again, pushing my mouth to his.

"Bella please…" he attempted one last time, but there was no conviction in his voice, and this time, when I pulled my lips back to his, he surrendered with a groan, leaning into me. My legs rose instinctively, allowing him to move even closer, and I felt the caress of the cool night air as the silk skirt slipped smoothly away. Edward's lips did not falter as his hand fell to my thigh, lifting me onto the railing, both gentle and forceful at the same time.

I could hear a nervous smile in his voice as he told me that he loved me once again. I could hear the waves against the shore below. I could hear his racing breath, and nothing more…At one point, it occurred to me that if he made one wrong move—if he let me go for only a fraction of a second, I would fall backwards and be washed out to sea before Edward could get to me.

He didn't let go. And my desire for him burned up the night.

At some point, we left the balcony in the direction of the master bedroom on the second floor, but we never quite made it to the bed. The bright morning sunlight found us lying on the floor of the salon, naked in each other's arms. I curled toward him, smiling.

"I love you Edward."

"I know."

His tone was distant—pensive. Worried, I twisted around to look into his eyes. Had I been that bad? I didn't think so. I had thoroughly enjoyed the night, and I had been certain that he had too. I propped myself up on one elbow. My entire body groaned in protest. I was already sore. I shuddered to think of how I would be moving tomorrow. My lips curled up into a thoughtful smile. I couldn't really think of a better reason to be sore.

Edward was still silent, serious as he stared into my eyes. His body was not cold against mine. This was the farthest away from me that he had been the entire night, and the heat that radiated from my own body was warming his entirely for the first time.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, hoping that his silence was only peaceful contemplation. "Did I do something wrong?"

His laugh was only a half laugh, really.

"Of course not," he sighed with a smile that was far from reassuring.

"Then what's wrong Edward? You can't just go incommunicado on me after the night we just had."

His hand appeared then, and pushed back a random lock of hair. His eyes seemed as if he was staring right through me, contemplating something. His silence was maddening.

" Edward! What is…"

"I heard your thoughts," he said smoothly, quietly. That stopped me in my tracks.

"You…what?"

"When I was making love to you…" He looked away, out into the sunlight that was slowly creeping toward us through the salon window. "I heard what you were thinking."

There was a sudden surge of both horror and wonder at the possibility of being subjected to Edward's unlimited precognitive abilities. I couldn't imagine a way to be closer to him…more united in that moment, than to share everything with him…even my thoughts, but I was supposed to be the one exception…the only mystery. What good was that title if my mind became completely open to him in our most intimate moments? Would that take something away for him?

He was staring at me now, concerned, and another possibility caused a panic to rise into my chest.

"You…can you hear me now?" I asked, almost angrily. His eyes narrowed.

"No," he assured, his voice tainted with something that seemed like disappointment. There was worry behind it. I wondered what exactly I had been thinking last night.

I searched my recollections of our night in an attempt to remember any thoughts that would have been unbearably embarrassing, but it was all a pleasant blur of random colors and images of our bodies intertwined in the moonlight.

"What was I thinking?" I asked tentatively, and the long pause that followed made me extremely nervous. Of course only my strangely wired head would choose to function right at precisely the worst moment.

"You were cold," he said evenly—sullenly. "You were thinking that I was cold."

Heat rushed to my face. "I think we've both already figured out the body temperature of your typical vampire," I replied. "Thus the three blankets I sleep with."

He continued.

"It was the most beautiful thing that I've ever felt at first," he said. A small smile appeared on his face, but the words _at first_ had not escaped my notice. "I saw how you feel for me. I've never doubted your feelings before, of course, but…the strength behind them…they rival my feelings for you in every way."

He drew in a short, trembling breath. "My love for you, and yours for me together inside my head…it was indescribable." His arms tightened around me. "If I never believed that we are supposed to be together before this morning, you have taken away every last doubt in my mind tonight."

The tension finally disappeared from my face. "I've tried to tell you a million times!" I exclaimed, stretching up to brush my lips playfully against his chin with a smirk. It was about time he started to believe me! "So what you're saying is that it was as good for you as it was for me?"

But his face was not playful.

"I won't argue with you," he said, smirking slightly, but his eyes remained serious and his expression darkened.

"Bella, I underestimated the desire you harbored for me. I saw that too…felt it."

I blushed, and looked down, wondering how it was possible to underestimate something that I had been demonstrating constantly for nearly a year and a half.

"It is nearly as great as mine for you," he continued quickly, sensing my unease. "It was…"

I was afraid to look up at him again, but when I did, there was a reassuring smile that brightened the room. It faded too quickly.

"The force of both of our desires together…" His breath stopped again, just like it had done so many times last night, but this time it was not a good thing. His jaw was clenched, and he pushed me away as gently as his mood would allow. "I nearly lost control…"

I rolled my eyes. "I think that was the intention," I said, hoping to coax the smile back onto his face. This time I had no luck. His jaw was clenched and set in stone.

"I think I nearly killed you, Bella. I couldn't stop..." He was staring out the window, but it was clear from his expression that he was no longer seeing the ocean. "I couldn't leave you at that moment. I would have killed you if you hadn't…" He paused, his face filled with torment and disgust.

"If I hadn't what?" I prompted, suddenly cold despite the uncommon warmth of our bodies together.

"You beat me to it…" The pain in his voice rivaled any that I had felt in my lifetime of constant injury. "You were remembering what it felt like to jump from the cliff…the cliff I had thought you leapt off of to your death. You were remembering nearly drowning after that…seeing my face in the water…crashing head on into a tree with your motorcycle…"

I knew what moment he was talking about. I had been trying to find anything to compare this feeling to…the feeling of making love to Edward. Every adrenaline rush that I had ever had had flashed through my mind, but none of them…not even all of them combined could compare.

Edward's face was a grimace of pain. I wondered again if he was reading my thoughts now…reliving my most death defying moments again. He continued.

"You were imagining me losing control…biting you and transforming you here."

Now that one I didn't remember. I shivered.

"It was only a flash, but it brought my mind back to you in that moment…all of those images of losing you." He was pale again…cold again. "They stopped me from…but even so, Bella. I would have killed you!" He turned to look determinately into my eyes.

"Please don't ask me to make love to you again while you're human," he pleaded. My heart sank.

"Edward, no!" I began quickly. "You didn't do anything that…"

"I saw it, Bella! Again just like the first day you appeared in my life. I will NOT put you in that situation again! Please!" His eyes were intense as he grabbed my shoulders just a little too tightly. I flinched, and his grip loosened.

"But you finally heard my thoughts," I reasoned. I was grasping at straws here—trying to stop his line of thought from ending where I knew that it was about to end. "Don't you want to hear them again?"

"More than anything," he agreed with a slightly tortured moan. "That is why I'm begging you not to push the matter, Bella. If you ask me again, I don't think I could turn you down, and I don't know what will happen if…"

His voice trailed off, but the traces of terror on his face left no doubt as to what he thought would happen. A chill ran down my spine, and I knew that he meant every word. I nodded sincerely.

"I won't ask you," I promised with only slight reluctance. After all, I wasn't sentencing myself to too many days of abstinence. I really only had a few more days left of being breakable. A worry flashed suddenly in my head.

"But nothing else has changed, right? You haven't changed your mind about…turning me?" I asked. Perhaps his little foray into my mind had been enough to convince him that I wasn't ready, but he surprised me with a resigned chuckle.

"After seeing your thoughts last night…feeling everything, I'm beginning to understand Alice's certainty." A frown bent his brow as he continued, but his mood was no longer dark. "I don't know if I've ever had a choice."

He pulled me to him again, naturally this time. It erased the last traces of worry from my mind. "Something so strong cannot be a simple matter of scent. You have to be meant for me…everything about you is meant for me, and I for you."

He was on his feet then in one of those movements that was purely Edward. He scooped me effortlessly into his arms and started toward the door.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, opening the door to a bright, dominantly beige bedroom. "Would you like to rest a bit before breakfast?"

"No," I replied, letting my gaze wander. The south wall of the room was constructed entirely of glass. The morning sunlight reflected gently off of the Mediterranean, sending its rays into the room and dancing off of Edward's naked body in a million pinpoints of light that made me instantly regret the promise I had just made. "I don't have to eat breakfast right away either."

The mischievous smile that appeared on his face caused my heartbeat to increase dangerously. He laid me gently on the bed, cradling the back of my head and pulling my body closer to his and kissing me like he had done last night. His chest was cool again—his stomach too as I pushed my hips into his, knowing that this movement would put a frustrating end to everything, but unable to stop myself. He pulled away as I predicted. I didn't protest. I had promised.

His lips were tight as he judged my expression. I managed to keep the disappointment out of my forced smile, but the effort must have made me look flustered.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he whispered, and the frustration in his voice was obvious.

"It's OK," I lied with a smirk that almost made it believable. "I'll just imagine what you'll be able to do to me when I can't be crushed in an instant."

He let out a tempted sigh and let himself fall to the bed beside me. "I've been imagining that now for more time than I'd like to admit."

I laughed and lay my head on his chest. We stared out into the sunlight for a while. I followed the waves again while Edward stared straight into the sun, growing more and more lost in thought by the moment it seemed. I decided it was time for an intervention.

"When?"

"When what?" he asked, breaking his staring contest with the sun to look into my eyes.

"When exactly can I expect to not be crushed in an instant?" I persisted.

His hesitation was all the answer that I needed. I rolled my eyes and prepared for a fight. I was getting very good at this particular battle…but in all truth, I had never fought it with Edward laying naked and sparkling beside me. Only _he_ would be able to bring such desirable weapons of mass destruction into a battle of wills. I looked out at the sea and tried anyway.

"Edward, you just said…"

"I know what I said, Bella, and I don't intend to go back on my word." He paused guiltily. "I have a date in mind."

I eyed him suspiciously. "Then why can't you look me in the eyes?"

That was a mistake. He took it as a challenge, and when his eyes met mine, they carried a force and conviction that stole all of my senses…and every semblance of an argument that was left. He was good…very good.

"The date is past your nineteenth birthday," he admitted.

It took a full minute to register his confession and assemble a weak protest.

"Oh no…" I broke my gaze and the objection gained force. "I'm already a year older than you. I'm not waiting any longer!"

"Bella, listen…"

"NO!" I did not meet his eyes. I did not look down at his perfect body so close beside me—at his smoothly muscled arm wrapped casually around my shoulders. I would not bend on this matter. "Edward, you promised! I married you! I did everything that you wanted me to and…"

"It's the 18th of January!"

I stopped, my mouth still open in protest, but the words on pause as I searched for the importance of that date.

"It's the day you came into my life," he clarified.

"The day you almost killed me?"

He sighed and a line appeared between his eyebrows. "Yes," he confessed. "And if you look at it that way, then I suppose it seems even more appropriate. Your life will end two years from the day it originally should have." The irony did not amuse him…or me.

"Stop it, Edward. I'm serious. You're just looking for more reasons to postpone…"

"It was the first day I looked into your eyes," he interrupted. "And the first time I heard the silence inside your mind. Your scent was maddening. It hid everything else about you in the beginning, but I've had two years to look back on that day with some form of perspective, and I've come to realize that I was yours from the very beginning…from January the 18th."

He leaned over me then, and his hand found the place on my chest where my heart beat strongest. "You're willing to sacrifice yourself to become mine for eternity."

I shook my head in protest. "Edward, I'm already yours…"

"And I've been yours since before you were born." He continued, ignoring my attempts. "But I did not know that until the day that I found the strength to resist your blood and discover the mystery behind those beautiful eyes. That was January the 18th. The date seems very reasonable in my mind."

Damn him! I couldn't think of a single flaw in that excuse. I couldn't even think of a response.

"I love you," I sighed resignedly, and then added, "Damn it."

Edward laughed, and hugged me to him one last time before he rose, holding out his hand to help me up off the bed.

"I knew I could make you see reason," he said cheerfully. "Now I'm going to make breakfast for my wife." He turned toward the suitcases. "Take all of the human moments that you need. We have all of the time in the world."

"We will soon," I corrected him.


	6. Untraceable

"Bella?"

His voice was a breeze over a sun filled beach—the purr of the waves around us. I turned instinctively toward the sound.

"I'm awake," I mumbled.

It was a lie. I was nowhere near awake. To tell the truth, I had been unable to distinguish between a dream and reality for the past two weeks. My days had been filled with endless excursions, perfectly planned by my new psychic sister to follow the clouds that never covered the Spanish countryside for more than two hours in the summer. I had felt a bit like Cinderella awaiting midnight as we pounced from place to place pendant on the written warnings that Alice had left in my suitcase.

I had laughed when I had found them—little fluorescent Post-its on corresponding outfits that said things like: "Wear this in Málaga. The clouds will come in at around 17:40, and this is a beautiful dinner dress," or "Tell Edward to take the scenic route to Cintra, or the sun will surprise you at 10:17. You'll need these shoes to get to the castle." It had all been written in Alice's tiny calligraphy and apparently accompanied by a detailed schedule that she had left in Edward's luggage.

My days had been filled with hundreds of sights to see, but my nights had been filled with only Edward. It had taken me exactly until sundown of the following day to regret the promise that I had made him on our first morning. That had been the first night that we had spent in the moonlight on our own private beach, wrapped in each other's arms and both trying very hard—and unfortunately successfully—to keep our impulses under control. I had fallen asleep every night to his golden eyes in the moonlight, and had awoaken every morning to breakfast in bed and a world of new sights to see. It was no surprise that I was reluctant now to wake up again in the real world.

"Bella, we're home."

He seemed more tense than normal. A sense of unease crept into my pleasant doze and I opened my eyes, not to Spanish sun and satin sheets, but to the smooth black leather seats of Carlisle's Mercedes. I looked out the window. We were parked in front of Charlie's house.

"Let's turn around and go back for a few more weeks," I groaned.

When Edward didn't respond, I turned toward him and was surprised to find that his jaw was clenched as he stared intently at the light coming from the windows.

"What's wrong?" I noticed then that his hands formed a death grip—at least that's what it would have been for a human—around the steering wheel. He did not respond, so I jumped to my own conclusions. "Did something happen to Charlie?"

"Charlie's fine," he replied curtly. His eyes did not stray from the lighted window. I tried to gaze through a gap in the thick curtains to see what was going on inside, but my eyesight was not quite up to vampire standards. Frustrated, I turned back to him.

"Then why are you trying to strangle Carlisle's Mercedes?"

He looked down at the wheel and his grip loosened. His hands fell into his lap, and he folded them there like a guilty child. He stared over at me with a worried expression.

"Bella, I think that it would be better if you went in to speak with Charlie alone for now. It turns out that I may have some issues to discuss with Carlisle as well."

A thrill of fear began in my stomach. Edward never blew me off to talk to Carlisle unless it was something serious…usually having to do with random other vampires trying to kill his painfully mortal new wife. But most of those worries had been eliminated over the course of the past year. The only threat now was…I stopped.

"Oh no, is it the Volturi?" Would this never end? "Are they coming again to see if I'm…"

"It's not the Volturi," Edward interrupted with a nervous sighchuckle. "It has nothing to do with _our _kind." The sarcastic emphasis placed on his last two syllables left no doubt as to which _kind_ he was referring to. Relief washed over me. "Charlie has a few friends over."

I rolled my eyes and looked around for Seth's car or the Rabbit that Jacob had left for his father. Funny, I didn't see any extra cars. They must have caught a ride back with Charlie. "Oh, please!" I began in a scornful tone that was becoming all too familiar. "I thought that fighting side by side with werewolves and having one as a best man at your wedding meant that we were in agreement that they were harmless."

Edward's face became an emotionless mask. "A werewolf is never harmless," he said matter-of-factly, and then surprised me by chuckling darkly as I prepared my retort. "Though you may need to use that as your argument tonight when you explain your knowledge of their presence to your father."

My mouth formed the comical half O that normally only appears in cartoons. I could imagine my eyes bulging out of my head in the same fashion as I stared, unbelieving, at what seemed to be a now mildly amused Edward.

"Charlie…knows?"

"It seems as if a lot happened in Forks in our absence." His smile was still very reserved. There was something that he wasn't telling me.

"Wait. Does he know about you?" Panic began at the base of my spine.

"No," Edward said simply.

"Does he know that we know?" I cringed as I tried to invent the proper punishment for hiding the presence of mythical creatures from one's father. For some reason, grounding a married woman for two weeks just didn't seem logical anymore.

"Not yet, but I think you should tell him the truth when you go in. It would make him feel less crazy." Edward leaned over to kiss me. "Besides, you're absolutely terrible at lying."

His tone was good natured enough now, but the tension was obvious in his eyes.

"How did he find out?" I asked question number threewo on the list that had suddenly began to number in the thousands. Edward sighed.

"That's something that I'm sure Charlie can explain better than I can," he replied cryptically.

My frustration peaked. "Come on, Edward! You can't just throw me to the wolves without knowing what I'm in for!"

The unintended pun was not lost on him. He raised one eyebrow, semi-amused. "Wasn't it only a few months ago that you were trying to deceive a psychic and a mind reader to slip across our borders and throw _yourself _to the wolves?"

I was not amused. "What happened, Edward?"

He stared into my eyes for a moment more before finally deciding that arguing with me would take more time than simply bending to my will. He let out a resigned sigh.

"A friend of ours entered the reservation unannounced."

"A pale, cold friend of yours?" Did the Cullens have any other kind of friends? I supposed they did now that _I_ was a Cullen.

Edward nodded. "From what I can gather from the wolves' thoughts, it looks as though Irina finally decided to give us her blessing in person. She should be with Carlisle and Esme now."

The curtains moved and I saw Charlie's silhouette appear in the sliver of light that their parting created. He looked worried. I shuddered to think of how that expression would change when I admitted my knowledge from the beginning.

"And why exactly can't you go in with me?" I asked nervously. If I was going to have to face my father's wrath, it was only fair that Edward be by my side to take his share of it.

Edward's lips tightened noticeably. "I really need to speak to Carlisle about this, Bella." He glanced over at me and noticed the worry that had written itself once again on my face. His hand appeared lovingly to caress my chin. "I'll be back in an hour. I promise. The wolves are there. They won't let Charlie kill you just yet. You'll be safe until I get back."

He reached across me and opened my door. I pulled myself unwillingly out of the car, and turned back, making a point to give Edward my best wounded puppy look as he pulled out of the driveway. The door opened before I made it halfway up the drive, and Charlie was out on the lawn and hugging me before I even knew what was going on. It was a testimony to how much the discovery of werewolves in Forks had affected his sanity. Charlie almost never showed his affection physically. Tonight he seemed to cling to me like I was his last life preserver. I hugged him back reservedly.

"Hey dad, I missed you too!" I said in the most nonchalant tones possible.

"Oh Bells, you have no idea how much I could have used you here this past week!" Charlie nearly moaned as four giant figures appeared in the doorway. I recognized the solemn faces of Sam, Seth, Quil, and Embry. "How was Spain? Did everything go OK? Are you OK?" His voice was growing closer and closer to a breakdown every second.

As I struggled to break free from my father's grasp, Billy rolled up behind the four enormous adolescents. There was a strange expression on his face—an extreme frustration, but also a form of relief. It was the same look on all five faces as they examined my every movement too carefully. I suddenly knew exactly what the expected results of my honeymoon had been for the wolf pack. They were checking to see if I was alive. In most places, the fact that I was walking and talking would have pretty much given that away, and I found myself laughing at the twisted turn into Weirdville that my life had so happily taken. I peeled my father off of me and turned with purpose toward the pack.

"I'm perfectly _fine_, dad," I assured not only him. "Spain was very…relaxing."

I started pushing Charlie toward the front porch. He came willingly enough until he saw the four LaPush boys at the door. Then he jumped visibly and grabbed hold of my arm as if to steady himself. The tension in the air became palpable. I suddenly wished for Jasper's talent, and I was certain from the look on Seth's face that he was thinking the same thing.

"Bells, something happened while you were gone that I think you need to know about." His grip on my arm was increasing at equal parts with the awkwardness of the conversation. "The boys are here because…well, it's a little hard to believe if you don't see it for yourself." He let out a nervous squeak that was supposed to be a laugh. "Hell, I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going crazy…"

He stopped, apparently contemplating how to continue without his daughter running straight for the nearest asylum. I breathed deeply. This was the sad moment of truth.

"All right," I began in an admonishing tone, hoping that a tension breaker was possible in this situation. "Which one of the wolves fell in love with a poodle?"

The explosion of laughter that followed destroyed the tension in the room immediately. It was the type of half crazyinsane, exaggerated laughter that only exists because it is so desperately needed in a certain time frame, but it wiped the insanity off of Charlie's face instantly. The look that replaced it seemed dangerously close to anger, however.

"You…you knew about all this?" His face was an array of colors. I silently waited for him to grab his chest and collapse at any moment.

"Yeah dad," I dissimulated. "You can't spend seven months in a werewolf's garage down in LaPush without finding out a few strange things."

This statement did nothing to calm Charlie down. He was working up to a full fledged attack. "A _few strange things!_ Bella, you found werewolves in Washington! You should have at least told…" he stopped short. "Wait…in a werewolf's garage? You mean _Jacob_…"

He glared over accusingly at his best friend. Billy seemed to suddenly find something very interesting on the porch boards in front of him. Sam responded in his place.

"Jacob's our leader, Charlie," he said in his unusually calm voice. "Or he will be when he gets back."

The hurt that registered on my face at this comment was mirrored in every face except Charlie's, who seemed to be on the brink of an old fashioned tirade. I recognized the need to change the subject quickly.

"Dad, how about we go in the house, and you tell me how you found out ? Does that sound OK to you?" I was speaking to my father in the same way that one would speak to a schizophrenic that had gotten wildly out of control. I hoped he was too distracted to notice that fact.

He was. His eyes focused on me, and he seemed to calm down enough to recognize the existence of neighbors.

"Yeah…let's all go in and talk this out," he replied with one last little insane laugh, he pushed past his now silent guests and into the living room with only a brief glance at the gun belt that hung from the coat rack.

"I took the bullets out yesterday," Billy whispered reassuringly as he followed us inside. I gave him an appreciative look and moved to sit next to my father on the sofa.

"Where's Edward now anyway, Bells? Shouldn't you newlyweds be together?" Charlie's voice was slowly becoming calmer.

"He'll be here a little later," I said. "He wanted to go home and say hello to his parents."

There was a snort from behind me, and Sam's voice came to me, sarcastic and low enough so Charlie wouldn't hear.

"I'm sure they have a lot to talk about."

I shot him a warning glance and turned first to Billy, who I was sure would be the only one of our guests with the common sense to fill me in without mentioning the presence of yet another supernatural race in the vicinity.

"What happened?"

The question had been directed toward the wolves, but it was Charlie who took up the thread of the story.

"Well, I was missing you, Bells," he admitted, his cheeks turning a familiar red. "I got to thinking about you going off to college all the way across the country. And you getting married just as young as your mom and me." If it was possible, his blush deepened. "I was thinking about how maybe I was losing you before I was ready." He shuffled his feet guiltily and stared down at the carpet. I felt a lump forming in my throat in spite of the situation.

"And he was missing your cooking," Billy interrupted. "By the time I got over here, he was down to two TV dinners."

Charlie snorted. "Anyway, Billy came down and invited me out for a couple burgers and some fishing with the…" he glanced over hesitantly at the enormous adolescents that lined the back wall, not knowing anymore exactly what to call them…"_boys_ on the beach." He flinched as he said it.

"Actually Billy kind of just showed up and kidnapped him," Seth contributed. Billy nodded proudly.

"I went willing enough," Charlie protested.

"And?" I prompted, sighing impatiently. Charlie had never been prone to large speeches, but once he finally had a good story to tell, he could spin it out for weeks…and finding werewolves next door was probably the best story he figured he was ever going to have. If I didn't push him, Edward would be back before I found out what happened. Charlie read the annoyance in my expression and continued without elaboration.

"Me and Sam were on grill duty and we were just putting the first burgers on when this woman steps out of the tree line, and all of the sudden, I'm surrounded by wolves the size of horses." He stopped, turning back towards the four boys and examining them again as if expecting them to phase at any moment. I recognized the sentiment…had, in fact, spent my first two weeks with the pack in the same state.

"They were all growling and foaming at the mouth, and there were little pieces of their clothes floating down around us like snow. I looked around and there were only a handful of us…_humans_…still standing around while something like twenty wolves all took off toward the girl."

"Ten," interjected Quil offhandedly. "And we don't foam at the mouth. We were probably just frothing because the bl…"

"What happened to the _woman_?" I interrupted and shot what I hoped was a meaningful glare at Quil. If the word _bloodsucker_ left his mouth, I was planning to lunge at his throat, werewolf or not. That was all that Charlie needed today—to add an ongoing war between werewolves and vampires to his weekly list of crimes and misdemeanors.

Charlie gave a mocking grunt. "What would you do if all of the sudden you had ten werewolves after you?" he replied. "She ran for it. At least, I think she did. I didn't see her run. The wolves got in the way. They all flew after her into the trees. I thought they were going to kill her."

His face was lined in frustration, and it suddenly occurred to me just how improbable it was that my father would stand immobile while a pack of wolves descended on what he thought was a helpless citizen. Charlie had twenty years of police experience which had reduced his reaction time to just about nothing, whether he was dealing with a convenient store robbery or a pack of supersized werewolves.

"What did you do?" I asked, unable to hide the concern in my voice. I was picturing Charlie jumping onto the back of one of them before he even realized what he was doing and ending up much worse off than Emily.

But Billy was laughing.

"He turned around and tried to wheel me up the beach with him," he snickered. "But my wheels got stuck in the sand, so he grabbed Sue in one arm and tried to pull me out of the seat with the other. You should have seen it, Bella! He was swearing up a storm, calling me a stubborn old bastard and trying to convince me that my own boys would turn me into dinner if I didn't stop fighting with him. He just about broke my arm! Sue would've been on the floor laughing if she hadn't been so worried about the kids."

Charlie wasn't laughing. He looked bitter. "What else could I do?" He replied curtly. "My gun was at the house, and all the wolves had disappeared into the water before I even got turned around to watch them go, so I couldn't chase them. My best bet was to book it to Billy's and call for backup." He scowled over at his friend, who was still chortling. "Besides, I was trying to save your sorry butt from a pack of blood thirsty wolves. You should've told me sooner and saved yourself the shoulder pain."

A general chuckle rotated around the room. Convinced that my father had never been in danger, I turned back to my hidden agenda.

"So the girl got away OK?" I was looking straight at Sam, thinking that he would be the most tactful of the four. He stared back at me, brooding. It dawned on me then that Sam had been remarkably silent throughout the entire exchange. I stared into his eyes, and my vague concern became worry. Sam was furious.

Seth took up the thread, rolling his eyes. "Of course she did," he replied. "She surprised us, sure. We had _no idea_ that she was there, but we wouldn't hurt any _humans_, Bella. You know that."

Seth's smile seemed sincere enough to convince Charlie, but the uncomfortable look that passed around the room from wolf to wolf did nothing to put my mind at ease. The words _no idea_ echoed in my head. Werewolves had excellent scent, and a vampire didn't exactly smell like roses to them. Jacob had described it once to me as something so sweet that it hurt. He had often complained that when the wind was just right, the Cullens could foul the air all the way down the coastline. I'd walked away from him at that point and made him chase me down the beach, but the point was the wolves should have been able to detect Irina's entry into their territory at least a mile before she did it.

How was she able to sneak up on an entire pack of creatures who were custom built only to kill vampires? I glanced over at Charlie, who was staring at Sam again with the same expectant expression and was convinced that I would not have that question answered tonight—not with Judge Charlie VanHelsing presiding.

"Dad?" I pushed. My instincts told me to keep him talking, even if he couldn't give me the answers I needed. He couldn't be angry if he was still telling the story. "Was anyone hurt?"

"I…uh...no one reported any injuries," he mumbled. His gaze had switched to Seth now.

"Well, there were about a dozen perfectly good burgers that we weren't able to save," answered Quil. "But other than that, nothing more than the usual. I lost my favorite shirt."

Charlie's eyes shifted to Quil and he shook his head.

"Must have been a big chase though," he mused. "They made it to the ocean. Billy was trying to explain it all to me when all the boys came out of the waves, just as human as ever and looking all guilty like I was going to arrest them. They were naked as jaybirds!" He stopped as if suddenly realizing that this was perhaps not the best information to share with his eighteen year old daughter. "Sue got into her big bag and pulled out a few changes of clothes. Emily had a couple more, and she swam an extra swim suit out to Leah so she wouldn't have to get out with the rest of them, and then they all started cleaning things up like it was nothing more than a rogue rainstorm that ruined the barbecue."

He sat in silence for a moment letting everything sink in. "I kept waiting for a wild animal report at the station, but nothing's come in yet."

Then his expression turned accusing. "How long have you known?"

I sighed. This was the anger I had been worried about. I searched around for another question to distract him, but the rest of mine all involved vampires.

"A while," I admitted resignedly, hoping that he didn't persist. That time in my life had not been one that I particularly wished to remember. He seemed to sense that by my expression.

"What I want to know is, did you know they were wolves when all those campers were going missing a while back?"

I flinched. _I'd_ been convinced that Jacob and his new friends had been responsible for those murders. It seemed only natural that my father, the cop, would be drawn back to that same conclusion.

"They weren't the ones that…" I began, but Charlie held out a hand to stop me.

"I know that," he assured me. "That was the first thing I asked about when…well, when I was finally convinced I wasn't nuts. They said they didn't have anything to do with it and I guess I believe them. But _you_ should have told me. I was out hunting _wolves_. I could have shot my best friend's son!"

Quil snickered. "Lot of damage that would have done," he mumbled almost under his breath. Charlie looked up at Sam, puzzled. Sam said nothing.

"We're pretty bulletproof," Seth explained. He was strangely tense now. They all were.

Charlie shook his head in disbelief. "Great."

"Well, not completely bulletproof…" Seth began again, but Charlie cut him off.

"I think that's about all I can handle tonight Seth, thanks."

He stared off into nothing for a while. I could see the gears in his head grinding, no doubt wondering how his teenage daughter could somehow manage to find something straight out of a horror movie in the two short years that she'd been here when he had spent his entire adult life in Forks and found nothing worse than a hunting accident.

He had _no_ idea.

I looked around the room as I waited for him to find more words. Four figures stared back at me anxiously, making the living room seem even smaller than it actually was. They sensed something that they didn't like. I wondered suddenly where the other wolves were tonight.

" No wonder you all didn't want to go see doctor Cullen in town," Charlie finally said, and the mention of my new last name—even if it was not in the context I had feared—made me jump a little. No one noticed. Not even the wolves.

What was distracting them?

"I suppose that it wouldn't be too easy to hide things like blood tests and…" He trailed off as he remembered Jacob's "motorcycle accident" only months ago. "Wait..." he said as the gears turned…screeched…grinded away. "Dr. Cullen was taking care of Jacob that whole time he wrecked on his...but wait. If bullets can't even hurt you, how could a little spill on a motorcycle…"

His words trailed off. Billy was staring at him wide eyed now, remembering the screams of his son as Dr. Cullen rebroke bones that had healed badly in less than a half an hour. He hadn't expected to have to come up with something more than a motorcycle accident. Charlie was quicker than they'd all given him credit for.

"Well, it was bigger than just a little spill," Seth muttered without looking around. Charlie stared at him suspiciously. There was a knock at the door then that made him jump so he did not see the relief that washed over Seth's face as he shot up.

Of course. Edward. That was why the wolves were tense.

"That'll be Edward. I'll get it!" Seth said cheerfully.

Charlie's eyes flicked to me. "Does he know too?"

I heard Seth greet Edward cheerfully in the entryway. Heard Edward answer something in Seth's thoughts.

"Yeah, dad."

"Does his father?"

"Naturally, Charlie." Edward's voice, velvet and light-hearted, rang through the tension as he wrapped an arm around me and kissed me lightly on the forehead. "You can't treat a bulletproof boy without discovering a thing or two."

Once again, the jovial tone fooled Charlie, but not me. Edward's eyes were strained, and he was putting more effort than usual into avoiding mine. He was worried about something. The wolves could tell too, and they tensed again accordingly. Luckily, Charlie seemed to have reached his breaking point for the night. He stood up and graced Edward with the same glare that we had been receiving all night before moving toward the door.

"That's it. I can't take anything more today," he insisted, ushering Seth and Sam toward the door with one hand, and clamping the other firmly onto my shoulder. "This whole town's full of werewolves. The town doctor knows how to treat them, and my only daughter has been hanging around with them since she got here. What's next?"

He turned to Edward, his voice sarcastic. "Are you going to tell me that _you're_ a werewolf too?"

Edward's eyebrows raised in amusement. He barely hid the laughter that threatened to destroy his game face as he stared as earnestly as possible back at Charlie.

"No, sir. I am most definitely _not_ a werewolf."

Charlie stared back at him for as long as he could handle. I had to give him credit. Not many people had the ability to stare down a vampire. The wolves all found spots on the ceiling to admire. After a minute, Charlie seemed satisfied.

"That's it," he sighed. He was exhausted. "I need another night to let this sink in. You all go…kill sheep, or whatever you do at night." His hand tightened around my shoulder. "Bells, Edward, you stay please. I need to talk to you."

The wolves mumbled half hearted goodbyes to me and Charlie and stared Edward down as they shuffled out the door. Edward nodded subtly from his guarded position in the entryway, his face grave. I looked up at him expectantly. He couldn't possibly think that I hadn't noticed that exchange.

He didn't, but he shook his head almost unnoticeably and stared as pleasantly as possible back at Charlie whose hand was now a talon on my shoulder.

"Look, I know that this sounds a little crazy," and he was looking at us now as if he was no longer a stranger to crazy. "And I know you've made other arrangements, but I was hoping that you two would maybe like to stay here tonight." He made an enormous effort to meet Edward's eyes. "I know I don't have anything to worry about, but I'd sleep better tonight if I knew that Bella was safe in her room."

It seemed strange—my father asking my husband for permission to have his daughter sleep over. Edward managed a smile and looked questioningly down at me.

"I got a bigger bed for the two of you," Charlie added quickly. "Well, Sue picked it out for me. You know how I am with shopping."

My throat suddenly constricted as I realized just how large of a gesture that was on Charlie's part.

"Sure, dad," I gulped. How could I refuse?

"I'll get the luggage from the car," Edward said. I followed him quickly out the door. When we were out of earshot in the cool night air, I unleashed my barrage of questions.

"Edward, what's going on? Why did Irina come now, and what was she doing down by LaPush? She knows where you live!"

Edward's eyes closed suddenly and he pinched the bridge of his nose with the fingers of his left hand. He looked like he was in pain.

"I'm well aware of the treaty, Sam," he whispered into the darkness, answering thoughts with words. I imagined a line of furious wolves just beyond my line of sight. "I could respond more efficiently if you weren't all insisting at once."

The night remained silent around us, but Edward relaxed visibly and turned toward me. "Tonight," he promised sternly as Sam emerged from the tree line, black and brooding. Sam stopped just out of sight of the house. I glanced back. Charlie was watching us both from a gap in the living room curtains. We started toward our goal, maintaining the illusion, but Edward's eyes were elsewhere.

"She wasn't aware of the boundaries," he whispered, nervous as he walked past Sam. He didn't like turning his back on a werewolf. "She has since been informed. It won't happen again."

The creature behind us let out a low growl. I opened the car door and tugged on a bag, frustrated and glaring out at a sliver of moonlight reflected on sleek fur. The bag gave too easily and I tumbled backwards. Edward caught me. He was furious, but it wasn't directed at me.

"You saw her eyes, wolf. Her hunting inclinations are the same as ours. We will discuss this later tonight under less compromising conditions." His eyes wandered to the silhouette in the living room window.

I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again when I saw Edward's determined face. There was no use arguing. He'd just let me win, and then take off when I was asleep. Stubborn predictable vampire.

He had both of our suitcases in his hand now as he turned back toward the house, his eyes barely acknowledging Sam and the other two figures who had crept out to join him. The curtains closed as we neared the house again and the porch light came on. Edward's shoulders suddenly tensed in the moonlight and I heard a crack as one of the plastic suitcase handles was pulverized in his grip.

"No you will _not_!" He growled suddenly, his face strained with effort as he tried not to turn around and give away the wolves' position. "Hunting her in any terrain would only result in all of your deaths."

My heart sank. Were they really debating violence? Had Irina's appearance really caused that much of an uproar? There was a triple flash of white teeth as all three wolves grimaced in the darkness. Their growls seemed in harmony. Edward sighed.

"You can't hunt Irina," he said dolefully. "No one can. She's untraceable."

"So…Untraceable?"

We were in my room after an excruciating round of Twenty Questions with Charlie in the living room. It was your basic police interrogation featuring all of the typical points of questioning…if an inquiry about the discovery of werewolves could ever be considered typical—How did you find out? When? Where were you? What did you do? Charlie didn't seem to notice the mounting strain in the room as he poured through his list. They were all questions that neither Edward nor I took pleasure in answering. It was a part of our lives that neither of us preferred to count towards our existence.

Edward did his best to maintain his air of nonchalance as he listened to me describe, in as minor detail as possible, my initial discovery of the pack, and I was relieved at how believable his own story was—how easily it intertwined with mine. Cover stories were Edward's specialty. After almost a half an hour of agony that didn't seem as if it were anywhere near to coming to a close, I had taken advantage of a momentary pause in Charlie's questioning.

"Dad, Edward didn't get a lot of sleep on the plane, and he had to drive all the way from Seattle. I think maybe we should be going to bed."

Edward looked down at me, impressed. Charlie took in the pale complexion and the darkening circles that had become familiar features on his new son-in-law and he nodded his head in surrender.

"Yeah, I suppose you two have had a pretty long night too," he agreed. "I'll let you get up to bed."

The Sportscenter theme song had filled the living room, bathing it in blue TV light as Edward led me gratefully up the stairs. Something told me that it would be a long time before we were going to be able to speak to the wolves.

Because _we_ were definitely going out tonight. There was no way that he was leaving me behind.

Edward brushed off my less than subtle inquiry and looked up at me from across the room with a smirk playing on his lips.

"Are you aware that this is the first time that I am officially welcome in your home overnight?" He appeared at my side suddenly, and kissed me softly just below my ear. I lost my train of thought.

"And all it took was a ring on my finger." I breathed, turning into his kiss and searching out his lips with mine.

He took my left hand and caressed my fingers lightly, stopping at the shimmering oval that I was still getting used to. A chill ran through my entire body as he kissed the ring and let his cold lips roam tantalizingly up my wrist.

"And what a beautiful finger it is."

I knew what he was trying to do. Still, it took an astounding amount of willpower not to simply let him do it.

"No," I finally insisted, pulling my hand away and fighting a wave of frustration that I could only blame myself for. "Not this time. You're not going to distract me. What does _untraceable_ mean?"

Edward stared blankly back at me for a moment, weighing his options, then his shoulders sank and he let out a long resigned breath. His eyes closed.

"It means that she can't be tracked, not even by one of our kind. Her talent is the ability to move without scent or sound…even without being seen if she concentrates enough."

I frowned. "But you can still hear her thoughts?"

Edward's eyes snapped open and he stared at me sincerely. "Bella, you are the only one I've ever encountered whose thoughts are a mystery to me." His eyes narrowed, and I took pleasure in the fact that he still found that fact frustrating.

Satisfied, I moved on. "What is she doing here?"

His lips pulled down at the corners and there was something bordering on curiosity in his voice as he answered. "She wants to meet you."

"Me!" I said a little too loudly. "Then why didn't she come to the wedding?"

Edward sighed. "Bella, there were wolves at our wedding."

"There are wolves _all over_ LaPush and she didn't seem to have a problem showing up there!"

Edward's eyes flicked nervously toward the door. I realized that my volume had reached a level that would probably attract Charlie if I kept arguing.

"She followed a scent she couldn't identify," Edward whispered when he had affirmed my father's continued oblivion to our conversation. "She realizes now that it was not the best decision on her part."

I fought back the plethora of sarcastic remarks that could have gone in response to that statement, and instead opted to move on.

"But she's like you? Vegetarian?" My casual use of his family's coined term for their atypical lifestyle choice brought a slight smile to his lips.

"Of course."

"Then why do you seem so worried?"

The question was followed by an uncommonly long silence, during which I observed an internal debate transpire in his mind between two strong emotions that I couldn't quite distinguish. Finally he exhaled sharply and met my eyes once again. "She has a peculiar interest in the wolves".

"I knew it! She wants revenge!"

A flame of panic ignited in my stomach. Edward's cool hands pulling me gently to his chest snuffed out the fire before it became a full-fledged inferno.

"Always the fatalist!" he said with an enticing chuckle. "Bella, she's merely curious. She doesn't understand the strange connection that our family seems to have with the Quileute tribe but she is making an attempt. She's trying to come to terms with the actions behind Laurent's death."

"Was Laurent her mate?" I asked against his chest.

"One of them I suppose," he mused.

"But not like what we are?"

His reaction was instantaneous and strong. He pulled my chin up so that I was staring into eyes that burned with intensity.

"There is nothing in existence that could even come close to what you are to me."

He kissed me then, his lips feather light against mine. His hand moved slowly across my cheek, past my ear until his fingers were curling into my hair…cupping the back of my neck and pressing his mouth more fully to mine. His kiss deepened, becoming more enthusiastic but torturously controlled. He pulled away all too soon, shaking his head painfully and looking away for a moment—gathering his senses again. I struggled to find mine. My next words came out weak and weightless.

"I should explain to Irina what happened to Laurent."

"You most certainly will not!" Edward was suddenly irate. His arms wrapped tighter around me, becoming restraints, preventing me from moving away.

His sudden mood change disarmed me. "Why?" I asked.

"Perhaps you recall the last time that a vampire's mate died while trying to pursue you?"

I thought about that and shuddered. I remembered all too well Victoria's wrath and the substantial amount of trouble it had caused—was _still_ causing. After all, Laurent had died doing Victoria's bidding. Edward felt me tremble. His arms loosened and his hands moved to stroke my face.

"Bella, I'm so sorry that Irina's intrusion has caused undue strain in our new life. I wish that I could take away all of your trepidation, but truly, she means no harm. She's only curious. She'll be gone in a few days."

I looked into his dark amber eyes and tried to reconstruct my argument as it disintegrated around me, but I was still focused on the words _our new life_—as if it were only one life shared between us. The heavy clomp of Charlie's work boots on their tired journey up the stairs provoked a pause in our conversation. I pushed deeper into Edward's arms. He obliged, and we held each other in silence for a moment, counting Charlie's footfalls as they stopped in my doorway to listen. I held my breath, but couldn't help the evil smile that spread across my face as I thought of all of the things that I could possibly do right now to make Charlie regret listening at the door of two newlyweds.

Edward's hand crept slowly up from my waist and came to rest over my mouth. He lifted me up like a kidnap victim and placed me gently on the bed, lying down beside me, and flinching slightly as the new bed frame creaked softly under our combined weight. He looked at me with an expression that was both forbidding and pleading and he shook his head slowly.

"Bella, you wouldn't put me in a compromising position on my first night as a welcomed guest, would you?"

"Of course not," I sighed, thinking of a few compromising positions that I wouldn't mind putting him in at the moment. I blushed and covered it up with a sly smile. "I was planning to save that for the second night."

A tolerant smirk appeared on his face, and my stomach was suddenly full of butterflies…very irritated, riled up butterflies, as I contemplated the more than four months that I had agreed to wait before I would actually be able to worry about this particular newlywed dilemma.

I lay in his arms and felt his long fingers play absentmindedly between my shoulder blades as we eavesdropped on Charlie's before-bed activities. The water in the bathroom turned on and then off again. There was a tiny snap as he flicked off the light. I breathed in Edward's scent as his hands moved away and I felt his lips in my hair. We counted more bootsteps from the bathroom to the bedroom, listened as those boots fell to the ground in preparation for tomorrow, and finally heard the bedsprings protest as he settled in for sleep.

Edward's lips left my hair and kissed slowly down my cheek until they reached my own. He kissed me passionately, folding his arms around me fully.

"I suppose you are set against allowing me to speak to the wolves alone?" he asked, his lips moving against mine, and spoken like that, I was almost unable to respond.

Almost.

"I'm going with you," I insisted. It came out with much more regret than stubbornness, in a rush of breath that left no doubt as to what I would rather be doing. Edward let his hand fall slowly down the line of my spine until it rested on my lower back. He pulled me closer to him, deepening his kiss.

"And there's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?"

My mind flitted to the honeymoon…to my bare legs wrapped around his waist as he carried me into the bedroom without breaking our kiss…to the combination of fear and raw passion in his eyes as he took in my naked form awaiting him in the moonlight, and the sweet abandonment that had passed through them as he had entered me for the first time. We had both been so frightened and inexperienced, and yet it had all happened so easily—like instinct…like we had always been made to fit together. I smiled mischievously.

"There's always something you can do to convince me otherwise."

He pushed me away soundlessly, just far enough to look into my eyes. What I saw there was new. It was not the militant self control that he had used against me for way too long. It was a longing that perhaps even rivaled mine….a desire bordering on pain. His hands were too tight on my shoulders. His breath came heavy as he looked at me with eyes full of indecision seeming to beg me to continue down this path. I wanted to continue. The heat that coursed through my body was burning up my common sense, and I wanted more than anything to push him past his point of resistance. My breath synced with his. My instincts were telling me that any gesture now on my part would break his self control. I wanted him too badly to fully appreciate that power.

A burst of snoring came from Charlie's room, and Edward's eyes came back into focus. The lust did not disappear, but it was tinged with the self control that I was fast growing to hate. His eyes flickered toward the door and then back to me, a shameful smile playing on his lips. His mouth opened to respond, but no words came…only a frustrated half laugh that seemed to say everything. I nodded silently.

"Let's go talk to the wolves."

This was going to be the longest four months of my life.

Fifteen minutes later, we found ourselves in a narrow clearing on the border of the territories-five phased wolves, one unphased alpha, one vampire, one human, and a partridge in a pear tree. Sam had remained in his human form out of courtesy for the only one who couldn't carry out a telepathic conversation, and I was incredibly grateful. I remained silent through most of the argument, observing as Edward plucked the arguments one by one out of each wolf's mind and tried his best to calm them down.

He was aided in the fact that the chase had been close enough for Leah, who had been in the lead of course, to notice the complete lack of red in Irina's eyes. Edward gained a few points when he called to the wolves' attention the uniqueness of their situation and the rarity of their scent. How was Irina supposed to know that she was approaching a pack of vampire-killers? She'd never smelled them before. She was only following a strange scent.

Edward was doing superbly. I saw the wolves' hackles slowly going down as he crushed each argument at the source and I couldn't help but be proud. He could negotiate his way out of anything. He almost had me convinced too when Sam's last argument caught me off guard.

"Why is the other one here with her?" he demanded aggressively. "The red head was supposed to be on a plane two weeks ago."

Red head? I hadn't expected that.

Edward had. He glanced down at me fleetingly with concern before turning his attention back to Sam. That was good, because he couldn't see the anger that washed over my face as I realized exactly which red-head that Sam was talking about. I was sure that my heartbeat gave him the message loud and clear regardless.

"Tanya?" I spluttered and saw the muscles in Edward's forearms tense.

"She stayed for Irina," Edward said quietly, only to me. "She's remained within the boundaries of our territory the entire time."

Sam was glaring at us expectantly. "She almost caused a war at your wedding. She almost attacked Jacob."

"He was as much at fault for that conflict as she was," Edward hissed.

Sam's hands were balled into fists, but his face maintained that same impassive expression that had been present since he had first learned to control his phasing. I had hated that expression when I had first found out about Jacob, but now I was beginning to understand the need for it.

Edward had deliberately held back the knowledge of Tanya's continued presence to me. He had broken our promise of absolute disclosure already. I needed a control face like Sam's at this moment.

Edward put an arm around me, pulling me tight to his side and preventing me from pushing away from him. He bent to look into my eyes, placing his hands on both sides of my cheeks so I couldn't turn away from him. "She's only here for one week more," he whispered. His eyes were sincere as they stared into my fuming ones, but his message was for the entire pack as well. "When we depart for New Hampshire, Tanya and Irina will leave for the north."

I frowned, momentarily forgetting Tanya altogether. In all of the chaos, I had completely forgotten about college. I hadn't actually planned on going, but now that my transformation date was so far away, I was suddenly sure that Edward would insist on my attendance. We only had a week left in Forks. I hadn't even started packing.

He saw that information slam into me, and he straightened, facing the wolves again with his arms protectively around me.

"They will not violate the treaty again. You will have no contact with them whatsoever. You have my word."

Quiet snarls filled the air behind Sam. Edward maintained an icy calm as he responded to all of their thoughts.

"Yes, the word of a vampire." He turned back to Sam. "Can you accept that?"

Sam's eyes were conflicted. He stared at Edward for a long time, and Edward stared back, unflinching. I imagined the flow of images that were going through both minds. Finally, Sam nodded gravely.

"The lines of the treaty have been blurred due to recent events, but the rules are still in place." He glared from Edward to me. I watch Edward look in my direction and flinch and I had no doubt which rule was on Sam's mind at the moment. "We'll be watching them. If they cross the line, we _will_ kill them."

His gaze shifted ominously to me. "We'll be watching you too, Bella."

Edward's arm tightened around me. I shifted away and nodded toward Sam. I had one last request to make before the meeting was over. I had been hesitant to make it in front of Edward, knowing the pain it would cause, but given the present circumstances, I decided a little pain would do him some good. Turning to the small sandy wolf that I knew to be Seth, I forced a smile and said, "Will you keep an eye on Jacob for me as long as you're busy watching everybody else?"

It worked. Edward's irritation was obvious as Seth nodded his huge muzzle, and loped off with the rest of the pack. He carried me back in complete silence. That was fine. I wasn't much in the mood for talking.

By the time we arrived again in my bedroom, my annoyance at his nondisclosure had mounted into full fledged fury. I turned on him as he let me down softly on the bed, fully prepared to make him feel every scathing piece of his own betrayal. Edward's expression stopped my words. There was a battle raging there that I had never seen before, flanked on both side by worry and annoyance.

"What?" I said, concerned, and yet still unable to keep the acidic quality from making an appearance.

"Irina was there." He said evenly. "She heard everything."


	7. The Denali Sisters

The dreary sound of rain on my window awoke me early the next morning. I lay without moving for a while, trying to differentiate night from day by the degree of light that filtered through my comfortably closed lids, but the clouds and the heavy curtains kept out all possible distinguishing factors. A burst of wind shook the window frame and took the volume outside up two notches. I moaned and pulled my three comforters tighter around me. It felt like I had just fallen asleep. That was probably because I had.

I hadn't realized just how much the long trip home and the night's events had taken out of me until we had arrived in my bedroom after our confrontation with the wolves. I'd been furious with Edward for hiding Tanya's presence, and with Irina for violating yet another privacy usually afforded to those who could hear and smell things a mile away. I had been prepared to accompany Edward to his home and confront Irina myself that moment, but when he had finally placed me on the bed, my mind seemed to surrender to the jetlag that the various in-flight magazines had warned me about on our flight from Madrid to New York. I hadn't wanted to give in that easily and so I'd tried my best to continue the argument that had begun outside my window.

"You should have told me about Tanya…and you should have told Sam about Irina. You just let her go without warning them at all. You knew they were going out tonight and that they could cross her path and you…"

His muffled laugh had stopped me. He'd been seated beside me, running his fingers lovingly through my hair. The placating expression on his face would have infuriated me if I hadn't have been running on the last of my endorphins.

"I shouldn't have told you," he'd sighed. "I stupidly agreed to full disclosure knowing your tendency to take everything onto your own shoulders and now look at you." He _was_ looking at me…and the concern in his eyes had been the only thing that had saved him from a bitter come-back. "Instead of taking pleasure in the last week that you have with your father before you leave for college, you're worrying about a petty argument between two species that you shouldn't even know exist."

I had opened my mouth to argue but he'd pressed one long white finger to my lips to silence me, following it with a cold kiss.

"Irina has never been a problem, Bella. If I can convince a pack of dogs of that fact, then surely I can convince my wife."

And as I had been half asleep already, he probably could have convinced me of just about anything. I'd nodded reluctantly, promising myself that I would continue this argument in the morning when my thought processes had been recharged. Edward had taken me in his arms and held me as I'd drifted slowly to sleep. Just as I was slipping under completely, his voice had called to me again.

"Bella, I want you to stay with Charlie this next week."

I hadn't been awake enough to be surprised…or disagreeable.

"We just got married. What will Charlie think?" It had come out slow and dreamsoaked.

"Let me handle Charlie, love," he'd responded. "You sleep."

"Good luck," I'd sighed, agreeing without any real idea as to what I was agreeing to. That, of course, had been his intention.

A bead of sweat trickling down my forehead roused me again from a doze and alerted me to the fact that it was suddenly sweltering. I turned, kicking three comforters off of the bed, and discovered the reason behind such a radical temperature change. The place that Edward had been occupying when I'd fallen asleep was empty. Worried, I pulled myself out of bed and stumbled to the door. My mind filled immediately with a thousand things that could have happened in the night to force him to leave suddenly.

The scent of breakfast drifted up to me from the kitchen then—not the cold-burnt-toast-waiting-on-a-plate type breakfast typical of Charlie, but bacon and eggs and, I guessed, every elaboration that the cooking channel had to offer. I grinned sleepily as two voices reached me at the top of the stairs.

"…knew you were competing with a werewolf and you kept it up! That took some guts. I've got to give you credit for that."

"I think you'd agree that Bella is well worth fighting for."

"Yeah she is. But a werewolf..."

They both looked up as my footfall made Charlie aware of my presence. Edward's smile widened. It was impossible to understand why he looked at me that way every time I walked into a room—like I was carrying the sun with me in my pocket.

"Morning, Bells," Charlie said as Edward slipped around the table to kiss me softly on the cheek. "I didn't expect you to be up for a couple more hours."

"Rain," I murmured, tumbling ungracefully into one of the three unmatched chairs at the table. I had gotten used to waking up to sunlight and the calm sound of the ocean in the past two weeks—the joys of a country that had once been able to claim that the sun never set on their empire. Forks would require another day or two of readjustment before I would be able to claim semi-normal sleep patterns again.

"Do I smell eggs?"

Edward chuckled and passed me a plate that was overflowing. He sat down opposite me to watch me eat. Charlie occupied the third chair, serving himself the last of the bacon. He had stopped bothering to include Edward at mealtime a while ago, accepting his son in law's mysterious eating habits in the same way he had accepted a household full of unnaturally beautiful teenagers and their twenty-something parents. I wondered fleetingly how he had worked out those two particular conundrums in his head, and made a mental note to ask Edward about it later.

"So Bells, Edward told me about your discussion last night."

I stopped with a forkful of eggs halfway to my mouth.

"Discussion?"

"You should know by now that it doesn't matter if you're married or not. You never have to be embarrassed about wanting to spend a little more time over here." My eyes slipped suspiciously over to Edward, who was suppressing a smirk.

"What would you say to spending a few more days with me?" Charlie continued. "Give your old dad a chance to get as much as he can of you before you go off to college. That way you won't be too lonely when Edward goes off on his camping trip with those brothers of his."

My eggs fell off the fork and landed on the table between us with a dull splat. Charlie was beaming. Edward's smug grin lit the room. He had just won an argument that I hadn't even started yet!

Edward could play dirty with the best of them.

"Uh…that sounds great dad," I stammered. What else could I say?

Satisfied, Charlie shoved the last piece of bacon into his mouth, rose from the table, and went to the coat rack to grab his jacket. I seized the opportunity to burn holes into Edward with my eyes. It didn't have the effect that I was hoping for. Vampires, it seemed, were also immune to the fire of my implied wrath. Edward was smiling innocently down at the square oak table when Charlie entered the room again, complete with police jacket and gun belt.

"Edward told me about your plans for today, so I thought that I'd head down to LaPush again and have another talk with Billy. Get some things figured out. I'll see you tonight?"

"Yeah, dad…thanks."

"No problem, Bells. Tell Alice I said hi. I never got to tell her what a great job she did on your wedding. She's got a pretty bright future in that kind of thing if she wants to."

"I'm sure she'll be thrilled you said that." Edward said, his voice like honey—evil, duplicitous honey.

Charlie started toward the hallway, then turned almost as an afterthought and added, "You two be careful out there."

I heard him mumbling as he pushed out the door and into the rain.

"Werewolves on the reservation. What's next? Vampires in Port Angeles?"

And then the room was swallowed in silence. I sat for a moment, staring at the splatter of scrambled eggs on the table and tried to wrap my head around what had just happened. Edward had purposely hidden crucial information from the wolves and from me. He had used my own mortality against me to trick me into agreeing to a week away from him, he had manipulated my father into believing that everything had been my idea, thereby eliminating any opportunity that I had to argue my position, and he had apparently planned my entire day as I slept.

I watched his still figure from the corner of my eye, not knowing exactly what to feel. I should have been furious.

"Charlie is taking the news of the wolves remarkably well, don't you think? It appears he has the same inadvertent attraction to danger as his daughter."

That was it. I _was_ furious.

I stared at the scrambled eggs as if they were tea leaves and somewhere in their murky depths, I would find the key to my future. I wondered if that future involved attacking my new husband with the fork that was still held precariously in my right hand.

Edward sat unmoving next to me with his hands folded together casually on the table and a hint of amusement drawn onto his face. His eyes were cool and calm, observing every fraction of emotion as it bloomed in my expression and made my face a kaleidoscope of confusion.

I finished my eggs slowly without looking at him…counting the forkfuls as I ate and purposefully making them smaller as my plate edged toward empty. Edward grew progressively more uneasy in the lengthening silence, and I delighted in that fact. After what seemed like a very long time, in which the spilled forkful of eggs revealed to me just about as much of my future as the tea leaves would have, I rose slowly and carried my plate to the sink, taking care not to glance his way as I went.

I took a long time cleaning up, washing the dishes as slowly and as thoroughly as my temper would allow. When Edward appeared with a towel to dry them, I turned my back on him and found a different one in the top drawer with which to do the job. He remained indulgently by my side, waiting out the storm. It wasn't until I started toward the stairs without a second glance in his direction that the patient smile in his eyes faltered.

"Bella you can't possibly go the entire day pretending I don't exist."

My stride slowed, but did not stop as I mounted the stairs two at a time in my anger. This was tempting fate, but I didn't care. He was right. I probably couldn't, but I could at least make him worry until I was out of the shower. My foot caught on the top stair and I fell forward suddenly, hands splayed in preparation for impact. So much for any hope of a dramatic exit. Edward caught me before I hit the ground. His dark eyes searched mine out and held them, probing.

"You're angry with me." It wasn't a question.

"Of course I am!" I pulled out of his arms, careful not to fall backwards down the stairs, and tried my best to stare him down without meeting his eyes. "Edward, you tricked me into staying here!"

He made no attempt to pull me back to him, but his face melted into an expression of genuine confusion. "You don't want a few more days with your father before you go to the east coast?"

"Not if it means a few more days of waiting until Charlie gets home while the man I just married is off with his two perfect cousins picking fights with my friends!"

Edward's lip curled up into an impish half-smile then, and he pulled me to his chest with a steady arm.

"Why Mrs. Cullen," he teased. "I believe you sound the slightest bit jealous."

I forced myself to look away as he gazed down complacently at me from underneath his long lashes. I wasn't in the mood to be dazzled.

"It's not funny, Edward. Our plan was to stay with your family until Tanya and Irina showed up and changed that. Why this sudden interest in keeping me away from your ex-girlfriend?"

That struck a nerve. His brow furrowed, and he frowned at me, frustrated.

"I told you that I've never had the slightest interest in Tanya. I'm yours, Bella." He caught a lock of my hair between his fingers and placed it lovingly behind my ear. "I've belonged to you from the day I was born." His eyes grew reluctant as he stared down the stairs and off into the distance. "If I'd ever doubted that fact, it was affirmed unequivocally on our first night in Andalucía."

He stroked my hair absentmindedly, his eyes somewhere else. I wondered if they'd gone to the same place mine had—to a distant balcony overlooking the ocean in the moonlight. My heartbeat increased. It was so hard to stay angry at a mindreader…even when those mindreading skills were limited only to certain intimate moments in my specific case.

His smile returned and his voice grew light again as his gaze returned to me.

"And keeping you away is unfortunately not an option," he clarified in a playful tone. "Alice missed you more than you realize. She's arranged a gathering for us all today to demonstrate just how much. You can see Tanya again and meet Irina, and you'll be able to pass your own judgment on both of them."

He seemed less than thrilled at that possibility.

I groaned internally, knowing altogether too well what Edward's carefully chosen term _gathering_ was disguising. Call a spade a spade: Alice had prepared a welcome home party.

And Edward still hadn't answered my original question. Why was I stuck here for the week?

Sensing the direction that the conversation was about to turn, he picked me up and carried me effortlessly into the bedroom. The rain had moved on for the moment and the clouds had retreated just enough to allow a miserable grey half light into the room to illuminate the pile blankets still tossed carelessly in the middle of the floor. Edward caught them up with one hand as he made his way to the bed.

"Alice is expecting us in less than an hour," he said, placing me on my feet at the foot of the bed. "I'm assuming you want a few human moments before we go?"

I stared at his angelic face, contemplating pushing for my answer, but his expression gave off every indication that he had become impenetrable for the moment. I may as well have been wearing the white flag pinned to my forehead as I made my way, defeated, into the bathroom. My shower wasn't nearly as refreshing as it should have been, but it gave me time to strategize for a counterattack of sorts at a later hour. Edward may have been able to take momentary advantage of Charlie's fear of my leaving for college, but I knew that Alice was equally unhappy about our fast-approaching move across the continent. A few well chosen words on my part would have her arguing in my favor, and Alice was not as easily manipulated as poor Charlie.

By the time the hot water began to run out, I was feeling much more optimistic.

I only made it halfway through drying my hair before deciding on a pony tail, changed quickly into a long tan skirt and a turquoise top that Alice had bought for me and that Edward had already delighted in removing several times in our two weeks in Spain, and I bounded down the stairs.

He was in the kitchen, waiting to fold me up in his arms when I finally made an appearance.

"I don't think I ever had the opportunity to tell you how beautiful you are in that particular color," he whispered into my ear. His breath on my neck caused my legs to tremble. I wrapped my arms tighter around his muscular shoulders as every last drop of irritability disappeared from my mind.

"Actually, I think your lips were otherwise occupied."

His breath caught and a smirk fluttered across his face as he ushered me slowly toward the door, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Bella, you are the singularly most dangerous creature that I have ever encountered."

I laughed. "You just wait until I've got venom."

The smile disappeared instantly from his face.

_Stupid!_

"Edward, I'm sorry," I stammered.

"No, you're right," he said, his voice bleak. "You will be dangerous…more than any of us, I think, with your predilection for attracting misfortune."

The air around me suddenly seemed to drop at least ten degrees. The rain had turned into a mist that caught in my hair and sent tendrils of ice down the back of my neck. I shivered as his cold eyes held mine, searching…assessing.

"But not until January," I reminded him, not knowing what else to say. His eyes seemed to come slowly back into focus and he smiled a wistful smile, nodding painfully.

"Well, Mrs. Cullen," he said, breaking up the cloud of gloom that I had summoned, "we don't want to be late for the party."

I gulped. Suddenly, I didn't feel very dangerous at all.

Edward's house was very well managed and seemed nearly uninhabited from the outside, as usual. I had breathed a sigh of relief when we had turned down the well-hidden path and found no lights or streamers in the trees—nothing at all to indicate that Alice had blown our homecoming wildly out of proportion. When we reached the expanse of lawn leading to the entryway and I still saw no sign of a celebration looming, I almost permitted myself a smile. Perhaps Alice had seen my impending discomfort and had decided to tone it down. My hope lasted as far as the front porch.

As Edward led me up the steps, a tiny flash of red and yellow, close to the ground and to the side of the door, caught my eye. I glanced over at the distraction and found a cheap miniature Spanish flag, strikingly similar to the six I'd bought as souvenirs for all of my human friends in Forks, poking mysteriously out of the porch floorboards like a strange silver tipped marigold. My brow furrowed in confusion and I turned to Edward for an explanation. His eyes met mine, but his attention was elsewhere, no doubt momentarily lost in the thoughts of the eight or so vampires waiting just inside—gauging the atmosphere.

"It's a warning," a sweet, melodic voice rang out from my right. I looked over to find Rosalie, lying on the porch swing with her head in Emmett's lap. He waved at us as Rosalie continued. "Esme knew you'd be uncomfortable with another big party just after your wedding so she limited Alice's decorating privileges to strictly indoor activity." She indicated the flag with a quick movement of her eyes. "That's just a little taste of what's inside though."

My heart sank.

"Thanks for the heads up," I stammered. Emmett's chuckle was barely audible until Edward joined him.

"Emmett. Rosalie." He nodded faintly in their direction with a smile on his face. "How was India?"

"The same as the last time. Everything fun is endangered. It sounds like there was more action over here." Emmett's good natured grin became a smirk. "How was Spain?"

There was no mistaking the intonation in his question. Edward shot his brother a warning glance that melted quickly into a resigned smile.

"Beautiful sunsets."

I smiled too. Emmett snorted, as Edward's arm slipped around me and he ushered me through the door.

Rosalie hadn't been exaggerating. The last time I had seen the spacious family room, it had been adorned in white satin and the smooth scent of roses had been thick in the air. This time, it was bathed as tastefully as was possible in the same red and yellow as the little Spanish flag, and instead of roses, the air offered the much less pleasant odor of curry carried from a table in the center of the room that was full of steaming dishes, plastic plates, and, much to my mortification, an enormous pile of colorfully wrapped packages.

Carlisle and Esme were waiting on the raised section just in front of the piano, exactly as they had been only two weeks ago to greet the unprecedented amount of humans that had been invited into their house for our wedding. The two Denali Sisters could have been marble statues behind them. Carlisle approached first with Esme close behind, and I was delighted to see that the estranged carefulness that had altered their natural movements at our first meeting had been all but forgotten. They greeted us both warmly, Esme pulling me into a hug that was completely natural for her, and together the four of us turned toward the two figures standing silently by Edward's piano, watching our miniature reunion with supernaturally attentive eyes.

I recognized Tanya's strawberry blond curls immediately. My mind flashed to a picture of those curls streaming behind her as she blazed toward my fragile half-human friend in the moonlight. She was tall, stunning, and still incredibly intimidating even without a look of fury distorting her features. The woman beside her was shorter, with pale blond hair that ended perfectly at the line of her jaw and partially concealed high cheekbones and mysterious almond-shaped liquid amber eyes that reflected more severity than curiosity. They were the sharp features of what I could only describe as the stereotypical Russian princess. She moved fluidly toward Edward, and bent in silently to kiss him once on each cheek. Then she turned to me nervously and extended one long porcelain hand.

Edward smiled triumphantly. "Irina, this is my wife, Bella."

I took her hand and shook it awkwardly, not knowing what else to do. Her unnatural stillness put me immediately at unease. Everything suddenly seemed so proper, as if I were greeting a queen instead of a relative.

"Nice to meet you," I managed, though a smile did not quite make it to my lips.

"Likewise," she replied. Her voice was small and sultry, which matched her model's face and form perfectly. She pulled me in for the same European greeting and I was shocked into immobility.

"You are just as Edward described you, of course. I should have known that such discerning taste would also extend to his choice of mate as well. I do so regret missing the ceremony. I'm sure that you made such a beautiful bride."

Edward came silently from behind me to slip his arms around my waist. "Yes, she was beyond words," he said, leaning down to kiss me lightly on the cheek. "You missed a beautiful wedding, Irina."

I did not miss the fact that Tanya's eyes followed our every move speculatively from her place behind her sister.

Irina's entire stature changed then and her grip on my hand became stronger. "Yes…Bella, I believe that I owe you more than just an apology for my absence at your wedding. It has been brought to my attention that my indiscretion only a few days ago caused a rather unpleasant revelation for your father. I'm so very sorry to have caused him undue strain at such a time. More than ever now that he is already suffering the figurative loss of his only daughter."

She spoke too formally, in words that seemed to carry their own rhythm. It reminded me strangely of a Shakespearian conversation. I had heard speech like that somewhere before, but I couldn't quite place it.

"He's getting used to it," I mumbled as casually as possible. Her skin seemed to shimmer even in the dim light that had made its way into the windows through the thick cloud layer. Her beauty rivaled Rosalie's…and I had only been worried about Tanya.

She persisted. "Still, it is a situation that never should have presented itself. I realize that my recent history has given you no reason to accept an apology from me, but I had hoped that you would allow me a chance to prove my sincerity over the course of this week." She was looking at me hopefully, her expression genuine.

"Um…of course," I stammered. I began to see another ally in my current campaign against Edward's new house arrest mandate.

Tanya appeared tremulously—or as tremulous as a vampire could seem—by her sister's side. "I'd like to ask the same consideration, Bella, even though my abhorrent behavior at your wedding has thus far proven unforgivable." She looked at the floor with a deep regret. "I should never have become involved—more importantly on the day of your union. It was impertinent on my part."

She looked perfectly sincere; even her position seemed deferring to me, but I was still much more reluctant to believe her than her pale sister. As Edward had observed on our first night together, jealousy was a strange and irrational thing. Tanya continued.

"I hope that my actions, and my subsequent decision to stay don't sway your opinion of me too greatly. There is a perfectly good explanation that I ask you to hear before you make your final decision."

"But not yet!"

Alice's tiny voice was a welcome interruption behind me. It was accompanied by a fresh, and highly needed, dose of calm. I looked around to find Jasper with his arms wrapped casually around the waiflike hostess of our strange little party. Her face lit up as both Edward and I turned toward her voice. "I've heard and seen this story and its outcome so many times now that I'm bored with it. First, I want to celebrate!"

Tanya and Irina both laughed—tinny, very natural laughter—as Alice flitted past Edward and appeared in front of me, her cold arms trapping me in a hug before I even registered that she had moved. "Welcome home!" she squeaked, and moved quickly to hug her brother. Her eyes followed mine as I looked around at the decorations. "I saw that you'd already be missing Spain this morning, so I thought I'd bring a little piece of it here! Do you like it?"

"It's great, Alice. Thank you." I answered, not quite as convincingly as I had rehearsed in the car. My eyes returned inevitably to the table full of strangely wrapped parcels and covered dishes. "What are all those?"

"The food is from India," she said regretfully. "I wanted Spanish food to fit the theme of course, but Emmett insisted. He said it smelled too unique to pass up." Edward tensed at my side. I looked treacherously over at my large brother-in-law, who had followed us in, wondering if he'd been the cook and contemplating just how tactful it would be for the only human in the room to pass on the human food.

"The rest are your wedding gifts, of course!"

I stared at her, cautiously. All of the Cullens, Edward included, had been specifically prohibited from buying any wedding gifts. I had already accepted an in-home wedding, two cars, a twenty thousand dollar per semester college tuition, and a two week honeymoon in Europe. They had all risked their lives time and time again to save me, and they had tolerated the innumerable amount of changes to their lifestyle that had come with a member of their family falling in love with a human. I had already received too much from each of them, and I was still asking for immortality. Wedding gifts would have been ludicrous. Alice seemed to read my expression and responded quickly.

"Oh they're not from us. They're from everyone else at the wedding," she assured. "I've been staring at them for days, watching your reactions. My favorite by far is the one from your mother."

She grinned as I gazed doubtfully over at the gifts, calculating the possibility that Alice would simply allow me to take them home and open them with Edward away from prying eyes. The odds did not look good. Alice had me firmly penciled in as the center of attention for the day. I decided that it would be much easier to get it over with quickly—almost like pulling off a band-aid.

Alice's eyes dimmed for a fraction of a second.

"Oh good! We're opening them now. I'm tired of waiting!" And she fluttered over to a circle of plush chairs situated within arm's reach of the table, circled once, and fell gracefully into one that was facing us. I was inevitably reminded of sunny afternoons in a sunlit Phoenix classroom dancing around a circle of chairs and waiting for the music to stop. I had never won a single game of musical chairs in my elementary years. Something told me that my record would not have been improved against this group.

I cast a hesitant glance from Alice to the table beside her and the pile of seemingly harmless packages lurking dangerously in their bloodthirsty sheaths of paper and my arm came up involuntarily to grab Edward's. I knew perfectly well what happened when I went up against wrapping paper. Edward did too. I felt him chuckle silently and I knew that he had read my fears perfectly.

"I'll open them." He assured me. The smile on his face had not reached his eyes, however. My history with gifts was a sore spot for him as well.

"Oh, that's right," said Alice with a supportive grin, motioning for me to sit in the empty chair by her side. "You just keep those little mortal fingers intact and everything will be perfect today."

She looked back lovingly at her silent blond counterpart and I could have sworn I saw Jasper blush.

Early afternoon found us all positioned comfortably in the family room. Some were looming ephemerally around the large flat screen as the BBC news unleashed another daily dose of sorrow on its worldwide audience, while others were still seated amid the ocean of freshly unwrapped blenders, mixers, serving bowls, cutting boards, Coffeemates, and strange kitchen utensils that had only a few hours ago seemed like perfectly normal wedding gifts.

The problem was, of course, that I had been thinking of a perfectly normal newlywed couple—something that Edward and I most certainly were not. Nearly every gift had revolved around cooking or sleeping…or any number of normal human tasks that I would only be performing for another four months and that Edward never would. Still, my increasingly confused reactions, and Emmett's inevitable slapstick comments—reaching their pinnacle when Edward had opened the card from my mother and found a four hundred dollar gift certificate to Steve's Pet Shoppe near Dartmouth for the purpose of buying a puppy when we reached New Hampshire—had lightened the mood considerably so that by the time it was my turn to test Emmett's ethnic cooking skills, any bitterness that I had harbored for the two sisters had vanished nearly completely.

I played my part as the house's only ingesting resident quite well, courageously testing every last dish, much to the satisfaction of the nine vampires watching my every move with varying levels of wonder or disgust on their faces. They laughed at whatever expression formed on my face when I bit into something unfamiliar, finally releasing me from human duty when one of those somethings turned out to be the spiciest pepper I had ever tasted.

Edward flew quickly to my side, his face painted with worry as I wheezed and the tears began to stream down my face. Emmett followed, apologizing profusely and disappearing to the kitchen for a glass of water when I asked for it. The others looked on with puzzled faces for a while, eventually drifting away in twos or threes toward the television or to another circle of comfortable loveseats when they were satisfied that I was not about to die on them.

"I warned you about that dish," Edward soothed, wiping away the tears with one hand as I reached for the glass of water. "I may no longer have functioning human taste mechanisms, but my sense of scent has rarely ever failed me."

I was too busy drinking to respond. Emmett ran to get more water.

When the waterworks had stopped, and I was capable of feeling my tongue again, we joined Alice, Rosalie and Tanya in the corner. Rosalie was busy describing the near impossibility of avoiding nighttime tourists in Bandhavgarh National Park—one of the largest Bengal Tiger reserves in all of India. Tanya had obviously been there before and her elaborations added beautifully to the image that was being painted in my imagination. I made a mental note to add India to my list of places to visit once I was finally free from the draw of blood. Edward stroked my hair as we listened and I found myself slowly growing lost in his touch before Tanya's voice, directed at us this time, pulled me out of my reverie.

"Edward, won't you play something for us?"

Esme was nodding from her place in the corner beside Carlisle. Edward kissed me softly before drifting off cautiously toward the piano with a suspicious glance toward Alice. She nodded once, annoyed. I didn't recognize the song that filled the air, but it hinted at Chopin. I glanced around at Tanya, whose eyes had closed to fully take in the music. With Edward otherwise occupied, I could allow my mind to focus on my counter attack. I would have to use every last bit of tact I had. I would not be able to mention it to Alice flat out, of course. Underhanded coups in the Cullen household were not possible.

I had prepared a subtle conversation opener for just such an occasion, but just as I leaned forward to speak, I heard Edward's low laugh, and the melody shifted to a very familiar tune. Tanya's eyes opened curiously.

"A new song?"

"Bella's song," Edward mused. "A lullaby." His eyes drifted to mine and he held them there, not needing sight to find the melody to this song…only the feel of the keys beneath his fingers. It was too beautiful to be bitter.

Tanya sighed. "It's very soothing," she said. "Such a shame that she won't need it in a few months."

Edward's face grew grim and I heard the growl deep in his chest. He switched to Mozart. I switched back to my game plan.

Irina's voice put another quick stop to my plotting.

"Edward, were the wolves terribly angry with my intrusion?" she asked. As if she didn't already know.

"It was a test of their patience," Edward responded, continuing flawlessly into the final movement of Mozart's seventh symphony. It was the only one that I recognized actual movements in. "They don't like being surprised, but they are bearing it well. I suppose you deduced as much from the conversation you observed last night, though"

His last line was spoken casually, almost as an afterthought. Irina's face melted into a tolerant smile.

"I should have known that I was within range of your talents."

"Of course you should have."

Edward's voice, smooth and amused, blended perfectly with the music. He switched to a composer that I didn't recognize.

"I still do not understand your necessity to negotiate with half-breeds," Tanya interjected. "It worries me greatly that you place your trust in a verbal agreement with a race that has never been known to keep their word."

"Our treaty has been long-standing and mutually beneficial for several generations," Edward insisted.

"_Several_ generations? So they are immortal as well?" Irina's interest had suddenly peaked.

"The treaty was not with them, but with their forefathers."

"And therefore horribly outdated." There was muted frustration on Tanya's face as she insisted. "You are greatly limiting your hunting range and placing yourselves at risk based on a treaty signed by dead men?"

I drew a breath in protest, but Edward appeared behind me suddenly, his arms snaking around my shoulders and stopping me from voicing any anger provoking opinions.

"The treaty was signed in good faith, Tanya," he answered patiently. "And we were the only ones whose hearts did not beat at the time of the accord."

Irina joined in the debate. "Still, Edward. They are _wolves_ after all, though strange ones, and their only purpose is to eliminate our kind. Don't you find it strangely coincidental that you should all have come together in this one harmless town?"

I felt Edward's arms tighten around me and his hand curled into fists.

"No," he growled ominously through clenched teeth. "Your view of our arrangement with the wolves is grossly distorted. I've already made that clear."

Irina balked under his flaming glare. I stood unmoving, confused by Edward's sudden outrage and expecting to see resentment blossom across Tanya's timeless face. Instead, a broad smile appeared there.

"Edward, you become increasingly more confusing each time I see you." I could have sworn her next glance was directed only at me. "Your capacity for patience and self control never ceases to astonish me."

His arms slipped from my shoulders to my waist.

"Bella brings out the best in me."

Irina laughed silently. "Yes, your human qualities are definitely beginning to show." I didn't know whether that was meant to be a compliment or an insult.

Edward growled playfully then, and disappeared from my side without warning. I heard a sharp intake of breath, and suddenly, he was directly behind Irina with one smooth hand wrapped tightly around her neck and his razor sharp teeth dangerously close to her marble skin. His eyes had gone black and I recognized the look of the hunter. For a moment, I was drawn back to the battle for his life and mine against Victoria only months ago. A severed head full of shining red hair bounced away into the tree line in my memeory once again.

"There's still a bit of predator left in me," he hissed. I froze, waiting for the backlash to come from either sister, but Irina only smiled submissively, and a ripple of knowing laughter echoed from various positions around the room. As I stared in disbelief, Edward's eyes shifted back to me with a hint of amusement, and he winked. He returned, quickly and invisibly, to my side.

"Besides," he mused. "I believe you two prefer more…human qualities."

Identical nostalgic smirks lit the faces of both sisters. I blushed for both of them. I knew exactly which human qualities had driven the majority of the Denali clan to their current vegetarian lifestyle.

Irina broke the awkward silence that followed

"Bella, do you play chess?" Her request seemed good-natured enough. I stared at her uncertainly.

"Oh yeah. I'm especially good at the part where I lose."

Irina laughed. "I suppose you are playing at a slight disadvantage with a family who has been perfecting their skills for well over a century. I myself have lost a great amount of money to Carlisle and Jasper over the years. I refuse to play with Edward or Alice." She gestured toward one of the three chess boards that were always laid out in the family room. "Come, please."

I hesitated, my gaze slipping doubtfully back to Edward.

"I promise to play nicely." Irina pleaded. "It's more for the conversation than for the game. I abhor idle hands."

He eyed Irina suspiciously for a moment, and then, apparently unable to find anything in her thoughts that would discourage a healthy thrashing at chess on my part, he smiled down at me. "I need to speak to Alice alone anyway. It seems she may have some harsh words for me. Something about an objection to our anticipated living situation over the next week."

I glared back at him as I followed Irina. Of course Alice had seen my plan. Of course she would argue in my defense, but I had not anticipated Edward's window into her mind. Downhearted, I wondered how it was possible to even begin an argument that both parties already knew the ending to.

Irina stopped at the closest chess set—a smooth, shining board with pieces sculpted of black and white marble. I sat down behind the white set-it had always reminded me of my new family. Already resigned to a devastating loss, I closed my eyes and tried to remember which move Edward usually began with. Clumsily, I moved a pawn.

"Bella, I wished to have this conversation alone, to apologize to you without it seeming as if I were only thinking of diplomacy." She moved her knight and ran a perfect hand through her sleek white-blond hair as if nervous. "Sadly it seems as if Edward has planned to keep you to himself all week, so my only option is to attempt to speak with you out of hearing distance."

I bit my lip, pondering. We would have to be at least a half a mile away to be out of earshot of the others, and I wasn't sure that I was willing to travel that far alone with Irina yet. "I don't think Edward would agree to that either." I mimicked her move. "He's kind of protective."

Her pawn came up to protect her knight and she laughed. "Yes, Edward has every cause in the world to be protective of you. You are a unique human without a doubt. You've changed his every thought and every movement." I mimicked her move again with a frown, wondering for the second time that day whether I was being complimented or insulted.

"In any case, this conversation can be as private as I choose it to be. My half of it at least." Her bishop made an appearance, threatening my pawn and she tapped one finger to her powder-white temple. "Untraceable, as your husband is so fond of describing it." Her eyes held an amused smile as they turned momentarily toward Edward and Alice. Edward had obviously tuned Alice out for the moment and was listening in to the best of his abilities.

"Well, I suppose that with Edward's talents, I'm not quite as untraceable to him." A flicker of a smirk appeared on Edward's face and he turned back to Alice smugly.

My second knight came out of hiding. "So no one can hear you if you don't want them to?"

"I can take my scent and sound out of their minds if I choose to." She smiled, and I sensed an edge of frustration. "Not with you, though. You've got a very…private mind." She castled. I hadn't expected that. "As I said, you are a very unique human. Edward was wise to wait so long for you."

"You can't…hide from me?" I moved my knight closer—probing, not yet threatening.

"Well, for the moment I suppose I should give thanks that you are still human, and in possession of only the most basic senses." Her pawn moved up two spaces, threatening my own. "And of course when Edward turns you, I'll be thankful that you are on my side."

I moved my bishop up to threaten hers and said nothing.

"Bella, I would ask you to please forgive my behavior as of late. I know that my presence has caused trouble for you, as well as for your family and…friends." Her eyes narrowed infinitesimally at the last word. Her bishop took mine. First blood.

"I do not desire conflict with this particular pack of wolves. It was never my intention to surprise them into revealing themselves, nor to catch them off guard at all. I was only following their scent. It is rather…rare, you understand?" Her eyes narrowed in anticipation as my pawn took her bishop.

"I don't really notice the smell," I replied, remarkably self-assured for someone who was snubbing an immortal. Irina smiled neutrally.

"You know, you are not at all what I expected you to be, Bella," she mused, and I wondered if I was imagining the impressed tone that colored her words. "I expected someone weaker I suppose—more prone to petty human reactions." She moved her queen forward.

"Check."

My king retreated shamefully. I looked up into her strangely puzzled eyes, and told the truth. "You're not exactly what I expected either."

"And what exactly were you expecting?" Her bishop crowded in.

"Well," I blushed. Was I really going to tell her what I had expected? "Maybe a Russian accent. Edward said you were from somewhere near Russia. And…" What exactly _had_ I expected? Fangs? Horns? "Someone a lot more…vampiric?" It came out a question and I regretted it immediately as soon as Irina's laughter began to echo around the room. I looked around, embarrassed, but no one turned in our direction. She was still blocking their ears. Edward's back was turned toward me, but even from behind, I could see the smile that lifted his cheeks. My king retreated as far as he could.

"The accent disappeared quickly, of course," she clarified jovially. "My mother…my immortal mother…was educated by the Volturi, as were Tanya and I eventually. If we speak with any accent now, it is probably theirs."

I jumped. "The Volturi?"

I knew I had heard such a smooth rhythmic pattern of speech somewhere before. A vision of a surreal white face against jet black hair smiling idly as his battalion of black cloaks ripped a frightened newborn to pieces in a field not far from here appeared in my mind, causing a shudder.

"Of course. We spent decades with them. Hasn't Edward told you our story?"

"No. I…I never asked," I admitted. It was an oversight that I found myself regretting at the moment.

"But how can you understand our curiosity with the wolves if you know nothing of our transformations? Our pasts?" She was suddenly frustrated, staring down at the board with a furrowed brow. I did not believe for a moment that her frustration had anything to do with my superb chess-playing skills.

"Bella," she whispered after a long silence. "I'd like to tell you our story, if you'll hear it."

Eight heads turned suddenly in our direction. I gulped and shifted my glance awkwardly toward the chessboard again. Irina had let them all hear her last statement. They were all to be incuded in her story, and yet I would be the only one hearing it for the first time. I blinked, unsure that I was ready to hear another story that was already destined to end badly. The telling of Rosalie's and Jasper's turnings had left me scathing. There was so much tragedy already residing inside the walls of the Cullen home. Did I really want to add to it on a day that we were supposed to be celebrating?

But Tanya was already by her sister's side, and Edward was above me with one hand on my shoulder, his eyes grim and reflective. The others were listening calmly from their places around the room. They wanted the tale to be told. With one long, contemplative breath, I looked up again at Irina.

"OK," I breathed.

A flicker of a smile came to her lips, and her eyes were both tortured and triumphant as she moved her queen in for the kill.

"Checkmate."


	8. Wolfhunter

**Thank you thank you thank you to my story saviors: giselle-lx and Rowan Moon! I'm sorry this is late, but I hope you won't be disappointed!**

* * *

The sound of my king as it fell seemed much louder than it should have in the silence that followed. I watched it roll from one side of the board to the other with feigned interest, suddenly unable to meet Irina's somber gaze. Edward had told me briefly of each member of his second family. It had been hinted that the three sisters far outdated every member of the Cullen family, but I had never suspected that their history would be so closely linked to those sinister moving statues whose unpleasant acquaintance I had already been forced to make twice in one year.

Curious, I forced my eyes to rise from my prone king and nodded for her to begin. She leaned toward me as she began to speak.

"This is not an easy tale to tell…or hear," Irina warned in a quiet voice. "At least not for those of us who lived it." Her eyes drifted over to Tanya, who reflected a wariness that seemed out of place. "And especially not for someone so inclined to view things from the…_canine_ point of view."

Edward's hand tightened on my shoulder.

"Just what exactly do the wolves have to do with you two becoming vampires?" I asked caustically. I was not about to let this turn into yet another wolf-bashing session.

"Everything, I'm afraid," she replied in a voice that was filled with regret. "We lived our human lives surrounded by them…wolves and werewolves alike, and if not for them, Tanya and I would not be among you today. We would have lived the normal lives of our time, and died normal deaths—from illness, or in childbirth." Her face softened into a smile, as if normal death appealed to her more than immortality.

Her voice grew colder as she continued. "You must understand that werewolves in the time of my birth and death were not nearly the same as the ones you so casually call friends in this age. They were savage in both wolf and human form. The pain of their transformation into animal rendered them completely insane as wolves and they had no more control over their own actions than a newborn vampire."

Tanya looked affronted by this comparison.

"Those _animals_ were nothing like us," she objected with an air of self-importance. "A vampire can learn to control the lust for blood. We can resist. There has never been a greater illustration of that difference than our family."

A wave of cautious grins passed slowly around the room from vegetarian to vegetarian and back around to me…the forbidden fruit. Irina continued.

"Tanya speaks with reason. Werewolves only desired more and more bloodshed. The pleasure they derived from the kill pulled them further away from humanity until the man inside them was completely destroyed and the monster was all that was left. I know this..." She looked at Tanya and then back to me gravely. "We _both_ know this because we lost everything to them…and because it was us who aided in hunting them into extinction."

I shuddered. "You…hunted wolves."

An image of the two deathly beautiful sisters, meticulous and merciless as they carried out the extermination of every last werewolf in their time, drifted into my mind and I couldn't stop myself from placing the faces of the Quileute pack on each doomed wolf.

"We hunted _werewolves_—primeval monsters who killed entire families without remorse or restraint."

I did not respond, telling myself that a room full of vampires was probably not the best place to remind Irina of the unrestrained nature of her own species, or of the significant dent that it had caused in the human population.

"In any case, they came for my family long before I came for them."

Irina's eyes were growing slowly blank, and I could almost see another time reflected in them.

"I was only six years old when wolves took my human family from me. We lived in the territory of Moravia in what would now be Slovakia, on the outskirts of a village that had suffered greatly from predator attacks. I cannot remember my life there. I know that I had a mother, a father and two brothers.

"And that I was frightened of the wind. I remember this only because it saved my life.

"I was hiding from the sound beneath the hay in the rooms where the animals slept, under the protection of two mother pigs when the wolves came in the night to slaughter us all. I remember only flashes, of course, and even those through the mind of a six year old—the pigs screaming as the wolves came for them first. The blood all around me and the screams of the sow as she was flung across the room and came to land on top of me. And the next thing…the next thing I will never forget. It is the sound of my family dying—the pleading and the screams. The sounds of the destruction of all those that I loved. They are burned into my mind just as thoroughly as the venom has burned away my blood.

"I screamed with them, but the death cries of the sow that was crushing me nearly to death drowned my voice. Her blood spilled across my eyes and into my open mouth. I choked on it as I listened to my family scream. The bitter taste of that animal's blood became the taste of the death of my world. It was my family's eyes with strangled surprise forever frozen on each face and bodies mangled, which was in my mind when I first tried the blood of animals at Carlisle's suggestion. I'm sure you can understand how difficult it was for me to make the change from human blood to animal."

I watched her cringe as she stared at the floor. Every face in the room cringed with her, remembering the bitter taste of their staple sustenance. Edward's jaw clenched. I realized that he was completely absorbed in Irina's story, trapped in her past and mourning her family along side her.

"How did you live?"

Irina looked up at me with discernment. Then, seeming to find something in my gaze that satisfied her, she continued in a grim tone.

"Sasha found me two days later, half dead and half insane, still trapped beneath the corpse of the mother sow. She had been drawn by the scent of the blood. I saw her as my guardian angel.

"Humans on the brink of death will never imagine hellfire and brimstone. They will not see demons on their journey into eternity, but angels come to lead them into a well deserved eternity."

She looked around the room solemnly.

"Not one of us, with the exception of Carlisle, saw a pale, blood drinking monster before we were transformed, but our own personal savior. You will see when you time comes to embrace our life."

Edward flinched again. I nodded. I could go one better on that statement. I had already seen my angel. He saved me not long ago in a room full of mirrors and again in a clearing full of snow. Irina's face had softened.

"Sasha was my angel. She brought me out from the stench of my family rotting around me. She cleaned the blood from my face and mouth. She took me as a daughter and she brought me to a home far away from the howl of wolves in the night. And she gave me something that I had dreamed of since before I had understood what dreams were."

A nostalgic smile fell across her face and she looked up lovingly at the strawberry blond seated to my left. "She gave me a sister."

Tanya smiled back at her, but I saw the pain that she hid behind her golden eyes.

"You must understand that this was the early middle ages. I could not tell you the year exactly. That had never been important, but it was somewhere near the turn of the first millennium. Wars among nomadic tribes were a constant—like day and night. Death from something as simple as a toothache or an insect bite was commonplace. For a relative to take in the remnants of her family was certainly not uncommon, and so Sasha's actions were never really questioned.

"Tanya was two years older than I, and her family had suffered the same fate. She had not been as lucky as I had. There had been nothing there to save her. She had risen from her bed and fought against her death. In a way, she had been lucky. Sasha had saved her before the wolves could finish their feast. Still, she was left mortally wounded, and she wore the scars of her attackers for what remained of her human years as a reminder of what occurs to those who attempt to fight against legend.

"There were two large angry scars that ran across the width of her face, down her neck and chest, and ended in deep indentations on her stomach, forever distorting her beautiful figure. She frightened me when I first saw her, and taught me to be happy that I had escaped the wolves without a need to fight."

I flinched, picturing Emily's face. Tanya found a place on the ground to focus on. Her now flawless face looked too devastated for me to feel even the slightest jealousy when Edward reached over to take her hand.

"I do not know how our mother was able to bring her, bleeding and so near death, to a town with a doctor without drinking what was left of her blood, but I am forever glad that she could. Tanya lived. And I lived because of her."

The two sisters shared a look that was so sincere that it made me regret having grown up as an only child.

"Sasha raised us as her own with unlimited disclosure. We knew what our mother was. We knew she sustained herself with human blood, frequently leaving us to hunt for victims, and yet we could not find it within ourselves to look upon this as damnation. How could our angel be damned? She took lives to live just as we took the lives of the chickens and the goats near our old homes."

I tried very hard to see it that way, but being on the other side of the food chain, I had a very difficult time doing so. I wondered if it would be easier when I had joined them as a predator and silently hoped not.

"Sasha educated us well. Nothing was held from us. We grew with a knowledge that very few humans can ever claim…a complete access to everything around us, natural and supernatural—the parts of the world that only a vampire could know. We learned to read pouring over texts of ancient vampire lore. We learned of Greek and Roman history from a mother who had lived through it, and fell asleep to tales of the protectors—the great Volturi."

Just like Jasper's had been, Irina's voice was filled with respect—even awe for the strange law keepers of the vampire world. I didn't like it. The Volturi were still nothing more than a strange immortal version of the Corleone family in my mind.

"We mixed our study of languages, philosophy, and mathematics, such as they were in those days, with the study of astronomy, astrology…the phases of the moon and the study of its savage followers. Sasha called those followers werewolves, and we listened attentively with the burden of vengeance for every family member slaughtered borne heavily across our shoulders.

"Werewolf was a word that was spoken often along the borderlands between Moravia and Bohemia. We had moved far away from the destruction of our childhood homes, but the long arm of the pack seemed to reach us even in our own tiny oblivion. By the time I was well into my adolescence, and Tanya was of marrying age, tales of attacks on the villages around us were common. Only cattle though, and livestock were their targets. Though we knew nothing of their leader at the time, we discovered later much later that he was as cunning and worldly as a werewolf could possibly be, and that he had also fallen asleep to the tales of the Volturi and their guard, though I cannot imagine a happy ending in _his_ tales. He did not wish to draw their attention.

"That is not to say that there were no human casualties…only that when they occurred, they were never mentioned as tales of mauling or mutilation, but as disappearances. There were no bodies to incriminate them, and so the wolves continued unhindered.

"We begged Sasha to let us hunt them. We begged her to help us. With her sense of smell, she could track them easily, but she refused outright. She did not wish to see the blood feud of her two young daughters lead them both to the violent deaths that they had once escaped. We did not know at the time that she had ceded to our wishes, however, and while we slept and dreamed of our vengeance, she would leave us to seek out a silent vengeance of her own.

"The trails always led her northwest into more Bohemian territories…much too far north for her to travel without leaving her two fragile mortal daughters unprotected, and so her vengeance became at futile as ours. And time went on.

"We had built a life by the time the wolves came again. It had not been easy. We were three women without husbands in a time when suspicion and superstition marked reality. Whenever a child died in his cradle or a rash of disease claimed more than one of the villagers' livestock, there were whispers in town of the strange women in the forest. It did not help us that Sasha could never show herself in the daylight, or that Tanya was scarred, and still we managed to form a life there on the borders between forever feuding territories. In fact, we were in the village when the wolves came, celebrating summer solstice as one of their own.

"They had followed Sasha's scent just as she had followed theirs. Our dear mother, who had saved us both from the ruins of the wolves so many years ago had ultimately brought about our destruction, and that of the entire town."

"But she was _there_," I insisted. "Why didn't she save the town?"

Irina shook her head. "Sasha was our mother, but she was still a vampire. It took every piece of will that she had to avoid drinking the blood of her own daughters. She could never have been a part of a public celebration."

She said this as if it should have been obvious to me, and now that I thought of it, it probably should have. The Cullens suffered enough with the scent of human blood all around them and they had been abstaining for decades.

"She was hunting, as she always did when her daughters left for town, and so she was far away when the air was suddenly torn apart by screaming. She heard our cries in the distance, but she did not arrive in time see the children torn from their mothers arms or the farmers ripped limb from limb. The town was suddenly awash in blood.

"Sasha rushed to us as fast as she could, and still she arrived too late. By the time she appeared in the ruins of the town square, all of the screams had been silenced, and the wolves were gone. Tanya had faced them once again, this time to save my life, and that is how our mother found us…with me alive and unscathed, crying over what I was certain was the corpse of my sister.

"Sasha had no choice, really. Tanya was much too far gone to have ever been saved. She turned her without a second thought. What else could she have done?"

She looked up at me as if asking for acceptance. I nodded silently, thinking that I would have done the same thing.

"As my sister's screams filled the air around our home, Sasha faced yet another decision. She knew of the powers of newborns, and of their volatile nature. She knew that I would die if I remained the only human once Tanya had fully transformed. She was forced then to contemplate two impossible options: to turn her youngest daughter and leave her without a soul, or abandon her there and leave her alone in the world. It was I who made the decision in the end. It was I who begged our mother to turn me as well.

"We were born into darkness at the same time, Tanya and I, and with the same hatred of the wolves forever frozen into our minds. It was that hatred that pulled us both through the three days of hell, and it was that hatred that marked our first newborn thoughts. We were bound to our vengeance and out of control. Nothing would have taken it from us, least of all Sasha. The moment that I was able to move again…the moment that I realized the power that surged within me, I would have been after the Bohemian pack.

"As it was, something entirely unexpected kept me from exacting my revenge."

Irina was lost in the story and so her sudden pause surprised me. I looked up to find her looking to Tanya again, her expression unreadable. My gaze drifted quickly around the room. All eyes were focused on her…all ears pendant on her next words. By the mixture of reverence and worry on each face, I could already guess what…or who it was that had stopped the two newborns. Irina's eyes were glued to her sister's as she continued.

"I awoke from death to Tanya's beautiful face and her crimson eyes, concerned and burning…and accompanied by a sea of others that I did not know. They were strange and frightening, unmoving…and amused. There were older ones among them, and others who could still be called children. They were the great ones that had starred in all of my human bedtime stories…The Volturi. Their attention had been drawn at last to our land, and to the wolves that kept it savage. They were all staring at me with a fascination that must have equaled my own in that moment.

"They were speaking quietly amongst themselves as I rose to take in the strange new world of scents around me…picking out the pollution of the wolves immediately. I heard a conversation that I did not understand at the time—something about my lack of scent; about me making no sound, but I did not pay attention. Tanya was worried.

"I touched her face—traced the places where the scars were supposed to have been, and I could not understand how such beauty could be marred once again with worry. Sasha was there then, taking us both into her arms with a comfort that would never die away as our human lives had. She explained to us both with pain in her voice that we would not remain with her…that we were to live in the sanctity of Volterra and to learn control under the tutelage of those who controlled us all.

"The wraiths around us seemed pleased and strangely willing. We left with the Volturi the next day, and by the night, we were in Volterra. It was there that our true training began. It was immensely difficult. Our desire to return to the peace that we had known with Sasha was a constant in our first years. I had entered into the vampire world with no scent and so sound, and strangely enough, struggling every day to make myself heard and smelled. Aro took the greatest interest in this apparent disability, encouraging me even when it seemed that I would never be heard again. After two years of frustration, the first one to hear my voice was my sister."

Tanya smiled coyly. I sensed that the sisters were sharing a private joke, but I didn't want to interrupt the story. I sensed a not so happy ending for the world of werewolves drawing near.

"You've been to the palace in Volterra, am I correct?"

I frowned and nodded.

"Did you have the opportunity to see their library?"

Edward's arm appeared around my waste. "You know exactly what happened in Volterra," he growled. "Don't play the fool, Irina. It doesn't suit you."

Irina's eyes reflected a flash of something that could have been an amused apology before they returned to the early eleventh century.

"The library is a work of art second only to what legend has given the Library of Alexandria. The books and the scrolls stretched upward as far as our vampire eyes could see, and it was all at our disposal. We absorbed everything with eager, photographic minds. We closed ourselves in for years absorbing the words written into the pages. Aro taught us to love all knowledge. Marcus taught us control of our new gifts, and Caius finally gave us what we most desired…the opportunity for revenge. He wanted us to hunt with him. He wanted us to bring the wolves to extinction.

"It was a task we took up with passion.

"For the next few decades we travelled around the world, reading up on the history of the werewolves, listening to the tales of horror passed down from generation to generation, and hunting down every man, woman, and child that counted themselves among the hybrid population."

She looked up at me defensively, already anticipating my dislike of her words.

"They had done the same for my family…for Tanya's and for innumerable others around the world. We were merely remuneration come in immortal form."

I was silent. She sighed and moved on.

"I suppose that you know a thing or two about traditional werewolf lore—the strength and impossible speed…apparition only on the full moon…transformation through the venom in their bite." She laughed bitterly, exposing a line of dangerously white teeth. "You can deduce where the last legend was taken from."

"Myth, of course, often times has no basis in truth. Werewolves, as you know, are born and not transformed. The moon has nothing to do with their changing, and though their speed is impressive, and their ability to slaughter humans was quite correctly portrayed in legend, their jaws have never been able to tear the flesh of our kind."

My mouth opened in preparation to protest. I had heard from Jacob, the details of Laurent's death, pulled into pieces by the wolves, and I had watched only months ago as Seth—youngest and possibly the weakest of all of the wolves—had slowly circled a newborn vampire, tearing him apart, piece by stony piece. How could Irina not have seen something like this in centuries of hunting?

In the time it took me to draw a breath, Edward had placed his other arm around my waste, and had pulled me as subtly as possible into a vice grip. The warning frozen on his face stopped my objection.

"We all know the limitations of our fellow monsters very well," he assured icily. "And more than one of us here are very grateful that your hunt never led you into the New World."

The looked that was exchanged between them was a complicated mix of respect and misgiving. After a moment's pause, Irina smiled dismissively, and continued her story.

"There was no need to travel to the New World. The animals that we discovered in our travels around Oceania and Africa were large enough to occupy us for years. We found packs of ten; sometimes up to thirty beasts. We tracked them and cut them down as quickly as possible. The bloodshed was glorious."

I flinched. Edward pulled me tighter to his cold frame.

"In the deepest parts of Africa, we discovered a group of nearly seventy creatures. They were incredibly organized and dangerous, and they'd gone undetected for decades. It took us months to track them to a central lair and we lost three hunters in the process. We discovered their leader completely by accident…on a hunting expedition of our own to feed on the humans of the surrounding villages. He was a vampire."

Irina's face melted into a scowl and Tanya exhaled slowly in disgust.

"One of our own leading the largest pack we had ever seen," Tanya hissed. "Killing our own kind to protect his…_pets_."

"It was the work of several weeks, but in the end, the Lualaba river was red with their blood. It was never a temptation…the scent of it made us ill."

I imagined Jacob and his pack floating dead in the Sol Duc river as it ran red with _their_ blood and shivered as Irina's tone changed yet again—contemplative this time.

"Time disappears when it is no longer a factor. Days blend into sleepless nights, and we hunted on. Twenty years had passed before the wolves began to disappear. First, the packs were gone and we were tracking individuals only, and then there were none. Years went by without a scent of them. We returned for a while to Volterra, and finally to southern Moravia to where Sasha had retreated. It was a happy reunion. We were welcomed back with open arms.

"Sasha had taken another two children into her home. The eldest of them was Katrina. We call her Kate, of course. When we arrived, Kate was nineteen and had been with our mother for just over four years. Sasha had found her, as she had both of us amid the corpses of villagers in a town that had been overrun by warring tribes. The second child—the youngest that Sasha had yet taken in—was Kate's. The father was the Bohemian invader that had murdered her parents. Thus were the times we lived in."

The sisters exchanged grim looks in which I was certain some secret passed from one impenetrable eye to the next. I glanced back at Edward, but he was absorbed in the story. If he had noticed the exchange, it didn't show.

"We stayed with them for the next few years, growing to love Kate as a sister. We watched her daughter grow under the unceasing care of those who never slept, and we were fascinated. Theirs was a piece of a life that we had never been destined to live, and it was both painful and peaceful to watch as mother and daughter interacted.

"There was nothing peaceful, however when the plague found its way to Moravia and we were all forced to watch helplessly as Kate died a slow and agonizing death.…nothing consoling at all about listening to her child, not yet eight years old, cry in the night for such a young mother.

"Sasha faced the third greatest decision of her life then. She turned Kate. She transformed a mother into a monster that would prey on her own child at the first opportunity, and once again, it was the Volturi who took up the challenge of changing the monster to mother once again. It was heartbreaking to steal Kate away in the night. To leave her daughter, our niece, not knowing when or if she would ever see her again. We joined the Volturi with the small consolation that it was Sasha, our own mother, who would raise her, and with the knowledge that Tanya and I could visit when we wished.

We stayed with the Volturi for twelve years before Kate was absolutely certain that her will would overcome her bloodlust without fail, and then we made our way back to our home and our mother to live in peace again. Kate's daughter married eventually and moved away. She had children of her own, and her children bore children, and so on into the ages. Kate has a family tree in Denali. Her bloodline has spread across the globe."

Irina paused, staring off into space with a faint smile offsetting the pain in her eyes.

"You've heard the rest of the tale from your husband, I'm sure—the death of our mother at the hands of our mentors. The shock and the horror that came with the knowledge that not even our perfect, enduring Sasha could resist the allure of the immortal children."

She waited, so I nodded solemnly.

"The child—the boy she turned—was a victim of a werewolf." There was unmasked hatred in her eyes as she said this. "White, Caius told me—a color that was rare in the Urals where Tanya had kept the boy. One that we never should have missed."

Edward frowned and Tanya hissed her disapproval, but Irina remained eerily still, her eyes impenetrable.

"Aro relayed our mother's final thoughts to me years later, when I came to him for forgiveness. The boy had been left for dead, just as we all had. Sasha, having been a mother to mortals and immortals alike for centuries, refused to let the child die. She turned him, just as she had to save her three daughters. She knew that it was a crime punishable by death, but you must ask yourself. If it had been your child…what would you have done?"

She was looking at me again with interest, as if only my approval would justify her mother's death. I struggled to meet her eyes with what I hoped was enough sympathy to be convincing. In truth, I thought I would have reacted the same. The silence in the room lengthened and I noticed for the first time that the sun was disappearing slowly into the trees outside the wall of glass, taking the warmth of the day with it. I wrapped my arms around Edward's as Irina finished her story.

"We watched helplessly as the wolves slaughtered our mortal families. We fought with weak human hands as they robbed us of our human lives. We watched them form organized packs led by our kind and we lost many friends to end their debauchery. We were caught completely unaware when a wolf led my mother to make the ultimate mistake…one that she paid for with her life, and now…"

Edward's forearms tensed under my arms as Tanya took up the thread.

"Now there's you." Her eyes were intense and directed straight at me. I started.

"Be careful, Tanya," Edward cautioned.

"Wait. What do I have to do with any of this?" I asked frustrated, not for the first time, that my husband seemed to be the only one who understood where the conversation was headed. Tanya's eyes flickered quickly to Edward before dismissing him completely.

"Come now, Bella. Surely you can see the influence that your presence has had in this area. Don't you realize the impossibility of what you have created here? Wolves and vampires fighting side by side to save a human girl?"

With that, Edward's arms disappeared from my waste and he slipped invisibly to a defensive position between me and Tanya.

"That is enough," he snarled in a low, controlled tone. "I won't argue this with you again, and I won't stand by while you fallaciously blame the woman I love for an alliance that began with a treaty signed decades before she was even born. Any conflict that you still have with the wolves is a result of your own withstanding prejudices. Bella has nothing to do with it."

Tanya's expression passed quickly from anger, to confusion, to regret in less than a second. "Edward, calm down. You've misinterpreted me," she assured, turning to me. "It seems I may owe you yet another apology. I only wished to show you the magnitude of your presence in the immortal world, but it seems that I am incapable of curbing my emotions at the mention of the wolves. Perhaps that is why Edward insists on keeping you away from us while we are here." Both of our gazed slipped to Edward, whose expression confirmed Tanya's musings.

"But now that you know our history, you can understand, at least, our concern," Irina intervened. "Werewolves, by nature and in all of history have been incontrollable predators. We've seen no exception to these rules in one thousand years of undeath. Still, here you are—a mortal girl—placing yourself in the path of their destruction…and you seem to come out unscathed every time."

She seemed genuinely puzzled by this; frustrated. I searched my mind for a way to explain it to her that she would not immediately dismiss as inexperience. I found the solution in her own words.

"Uncontrollable predators," I repeated.

"Yes."

"By nature?"

She nodded.

"Just like vampires."

I watched a smile light Edward's face as he watched discovery dawning in Irina's thoughts. She drew a quick opposing breath, and stared around at the eight pairs of golden eyes that were all quickly jumping to the same conclusion. Vampires by nature were even more predatory than wolves, and yet I was arguing with living proof of the eternal presence of an exception to every rule.

"Your wolves are no different than those we hunted centuries ago," she protested, her eyes growing bitter. "I know that Laurent had not yet perfected the will power to live as we do. I know what he would have done to you…but he was running from them when the pack took him down. One of the wolves gloated about it to my sisters on the night of your wedding. They killed him without remorse."

I shivered at the memory of Laurent's dark red eyes tracking my every movement in the meadow, like a wildcat stalking its prey. Then I continued on to my point.

"Just like Edward did to Victoria; and Jasper and Emmett did to James?"

I paused, regretting those examples. Both incidences had been in my defense. I switched gears, pulling my next argument from Irina's own words again.

"Just like you and Tanya did to the leader of the African pack. Only out of necessity."

I expected Tanya to react negatively to this. I expected an argument filled with reasoning and exceptions. Instead, the sisters only stared at me with smiles forming on their beautiful faces and something that could have been amusement, or perhaps even respect in their eyes.

"Nicely played," Irina mused. "I cede the argument. You're very quick witted for a human. It seems you are Edward's pair in all things."

When I didn't react, she turned to Edward.

"It seems that luck has found you, Edward. She will make the perfect completion to the Cullen family. You should be incredibly proud."

"I am," Edward agreed smoothly.

The look on his face as he stared back at Irina belied much more protection than pride.


	9. Seattle

I was awoken the next morning by something smooth and cool brushing against the back of my neck. I shifted away, reluctant to relinquish the veil of such a comfortable slumber. The sensation persisted, moving slowly down my neck and to my exposed shoulder. I rolled onto my side, letting my hair fall around me, covering my bare skin. My half awake gesture was followed by a soft musical laugh and a wave of a delicious aroma that I knew all too well. I smiled and breathed it in without opening my eyes.

A cold hand brushed the hair from my shoulder, and his lips returned to the task of waking me. I lay perfectly still, sighing as his kisses sent chills of pleasure all the way down to my toes.

"Good morning," he whispered, and his breath washed lusciously over me again.

My smile widened as I rolled over once more—this time toward his voice—and allowed my eyes to flutter open. Edward was leaning casually on one elbow, watching me, transfixed. His eyes did not reflect the warmth of a sunlit morning, or even the muted grey of a typical Forks morning. Instead, they shined a silver-yellow with the reflection of the lone streetlight that stood on the corner of our lot and served as my night light whenever I forgot to close the curtains. It was still dark outside.

"What time is it?"

He chuckled gently and reached over to take my chin in his hands, his lips searching mine out for a good morning kiss. "It's early," he confirmed. There was a painfully mischievous grin on his lips as they brushed against mine again, pushing away the last remnants of sleep. "It's not quite four-thirty yet, but something tells me that you won't have much more time to sleep. Charlie wants you to be ready by five."

"Oh no."

A low moan escaped me even as his lips pressed harder to mine. It had nothing to do with desire. I felt him tremble with a silent laughter as he pulled away.

"What is he going to make me do?" I asked, pulling up the edge of the comforter that surrounded me and inviting Edward in.

He moved eagerly into the cocoon of warmth I had created and wrapped his icy hands around my waist. I was unable to hide the shiver that they produced. He pulled me closer to him and wrapped him arms around me until I felt the heat of my body slowly begin to warm his stone skin.

"Nothing you haven't done before," he reassured. I could tell from the sarcastic expression on his face that he was going to make me work for any more information. I sighed, and curled closer under the blankets, enjoying the moment instead. It had been three days since Edward had made his last minute modifications to our living arrangements, and I had to admit that I was liking his decision more and more each day.

When he'd described the situation to me at first, I'd been planning morosely to spend my last week in Forks alone with my father, packing for a college that I wouldn't be graduating from while Edward was off playing hunting games with his brothers and two perfect cousins. Instead, he had remained at my side most of the time, only leaving me for a few hours in the daylight—enough to avoid Charlie, who thought Edward had gone on one last camping trip with his family before heading off to Dartmouth. I'd still fallen asleep every night to his voice and awoken every morning to his lips on mine.

And I had to admit, living with Charlie wasn't at all like living with the Cullens, where whatever you said—or did—could be heard by every member of the family. Talk about your atypical walk of shame. On the other hand, Charlie was still married to his work, and still gone to the station or the lake from sunup to sun down. Living with him was a lot like living alone as newlyweds…except, of course, when he got it in his head that he and his daughter needed to spend some last minute quality time together. I glared up at my secretive new husband without a word, hoping my silence would pay off. It did.

"He wants to take you fishing with him today," he admitted with a resigned sigh.

I groaned outwardly as images of childhood trips to the lake clouded my mind. They were less memories of fishing with my father, and more of sitting on the shore with Jacob's two sisters drawing pictures with sticks along the muddy bank and counting the minutes that seemed to creep by as slowly as possible while we waited for our fathers to catch enough fish so that we all could go home. More than a few of those flashes were remembered through the miserably confining hood of a rain slicker and accompanied by the dull splattering of a typical Olympic peninsula downpour. I could still picture the gnarled trunk of the tree that the three of us would all retreat to in an attempt to keep from drowning while we waited.

Those were not exactly happy childhood memories, and I had no intention of making them some of my last human adult memories too.

"No," I snapped stubbornly. "I won't do it."

Edward's arms did not move from around me, but his face in the relative darkness was filled with something that was too close to empathy for my liking. His lips tensed and he suddenly resembled a little boy who was about to tell his father about a bad report card.

"I think that you should at least consider going with him, Bella," he said. "Charlie spent all day yesterday and part of last night planning it. He's needed some time alone with his daughter for quite some time and I'm afraid he may be hurt if you refuse." His face was sincere.

I exhaled loudly, reluctantly forcing myself to see things from Charlie's point of view, but try as I may, I couldn't avoid thinking of the hundreds of better things that I could have been doing with my last minutes with my father. Fishing certainly did not make the top one hundred.

"Are you coming?"

It was my last ray of hope. Anything—even the torture of innocent earthworms and lake trout—was made more bearable when Edward was there. But not surprisingly, he shook his head.

"Not today. I've made arrangements to hunt near the Bailey Range with Jasper and Alice."

He was excluding the most important part, of course. I did my best to feign indifference as I pointed that out to him. "And Tanya and Irina."

He didn't have to react for me to realize what that had sounded like, but the knowing smirk that washed over his face brought it down with force just the same. I was horrible at hiding it. I had been married less than a month, and I was already playing the jealous wife. I blushed.

Edward kissed one burning cheek.

"Have I mentioned how much I'm going to miss that?"

"A few times," I breathed and turned my head to kiss his lips again. "_I_ won't miss it at all."

He pulled away with a sigh. "Yes you will."

He pulled the blankets down and stared morosely into my eyes. I met his gaze, and we lay in silence for a moment, both thinking of the changes that the next few months would bring, though both in a completely different light. Then my stomach grumbled, spoiling the moment…if that's what it had been. Edward's smile appeared again and he ran his hand lightly through my hair.

"Charlie is contemplating making eggs before waking you," he warned. "You should probably get down to the kitchen before him if you want something remotely edible for breakfast."

He kissed my forehead gently once before pulling the comforter off completely and jumping gracefully to his feet. I followed his lead, stumbling on the pile of clothes beside the bed, and tripping again on my own feet as I made my way to my closet to search for appropriate fishing clothes. Apparently, it was a lot easier to get your bearing in the morning when you hadn't slept in a century. Edward smirked, but said nothing as he watched me dig into a pile of half folded jeans.

"You know I could get out of it if I told Charlie you were coming back today." My voice couldn't possibly have reflected the bitterness that I felt.

Edward's expression darkened. "I think you need this time with your father, Bella," he said, his eyes drifting to the forest beyond our meager lawn. "You'll be hunting with us soon enough…and you'll be stronger and faster than us all—even Tanya and Irina." He grinned and kissed me again, pulling me out of the closet and into his arms in one fell swoop. "Alice tells me that the sun will be out nearly all day."

I contemplated a day on the lake making awkward conversation with my father and praying that the fish don't bite.

"All right," I agreed as he set me on my feet again and placed the pair of jeans that I'd been searching for into my hands. "As long as I have your word that you'll be back tonight to tend to the sunburn."

He looked fascinated. "A sunburn," he mused, as if he had never heard the term. "I should probably advise you to avoid that, but the prospect is somewhat enticing."

He dug into the pile of clothes on the closet floor, and the shirt that I'd already decided to wear appeared in his hand. I pulled him into a hug, feeling incredibly predictable. He obliged, the interested smirk still drawn on his face.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not going to die of skin cancer," I assured him.

He frowned down at me. "No, I suppose not."

The sound of boots on the stairs drove the frown from his face. I sighed as the angelic smirk that replaced it sent chills down my spine and momentarily distracted me from the day of torture that lay ahead. He pulled away with one last gentle kiss and glided swiftly to the window.

"We won't hunt long," he assured me in a whisper, silhouetted beautifully against the yellow street light. "I'll be back somewhere near sundown. You'll be in Quileute territory today so I'm placing my trust in the vigilance of the wolves." He opened the window and then appeared silently in front of me for one more kiss. "Please make an attempt to honor your first promise to me and keep yourself free from injury until I return."

I sighed. "I'll try, but I can't promise anything," I whispered as he made his way reluctantly to the open window again. "You know-big lakes, old propeller boats, rusty hooks and all that."

He stared back at me with wide eyes. "That's not even remotely funny."

"Yes it was," and I chuckled quietly to prove it. "You know that you're my husband now, right? You're welcome here all night. You don't have to crawl in and out of my window anymore."

"I know," Edward whispered, and then flashed one last beautiful smile. "It's more fun this way."

Charlie knocked on the door. I jumped and glared over at the door—the two inches of hollow wood laminate that was separating me from a day full of awkward silences and fish guts.

"Hey Bells," came the ominous, over-cheerful voice of my captor. "I've got a little surprise planned for us today. How about you get up and I'll tell you about it?"

Another tiny moan escaped me. By the time I looked back at the window, Edward was gone.

True to Edward's word, Charlie had planned his father, daughter fishing trip right down to the last detail. He had even gone out and done his own grocery shopping the day before so that he could make us a gourmet picnic lunch of sandwiches, celery sticks, and string cheese. By the time he had come knocking at my door, all of the sandwiches had been made and placed in a cooler that was packed into the back of the cruiser along with two fishing poles, an overly large tackle box, and a very well stocked first aid kit—a must-have for any travel with this unsteady newlywed.

The look of excitement on my father's face as he laid out all of the details of his perfect day on the lake quashed any objections that I may have been able to give. I had tried to stall as much as possible in the shower, and I had eaten my cereal—there had been no eggs left for Charlie to destroy—practically one grain at a time. Still, by the time six o'clock rolled around, we were already on the road and well on our way to Beaver Lake.

It turned out much better than I'd expected. The silence didn't seem as awkward when there weren't a rush of questions about the supernatural hanging in the air around us. I actually found it peaceful. Without a lot of conversation, I was able to clear my mind of wolf feuds and supermodel vampire cousins, and just focus on the warmth of such a rare sunny day.

I was in such a good mood after the first two hours that I dared to pick up a fishing pole and try my hand at something I hadn't done since I was eight. After about fifteen minutes of staring at the bobber and wondering whether it had moved, or whether the ripples in the lake had moved it, I felt an obvious tug on my line. Charlie, who had been sitting vigilantly behind me and had already reeled in two large fish, was overenthusiastic as I reeled in a rather puny looking trout.

If he had been alone, I was certain that he would have thrown it back, but since it was the first fish his daughter had caught in at least ten years, he stoically stepped forward to remove the hook and place it in the cooler alongside his two monsters. I watched the tiny silver fish flop around in Charlie's hands as he tried to take the hook out and I was suddenly overjoyed to be considered clumsy even by my own father. I hated handling live fish.

My initial triumph as a fish catcher was followed by a long stint without any bobber action whatsoever. I watched Charlie reel in another fish—this one shorter and wider with blue around the throat—and I had just begun to contemplate ditching the pole and pulling out the book that I had packed in my bag when my dad broke the silence.

"I'm really going to miss you, Bells," he said without looking up. "You've made things…a lot better here."

I glanced over at him, but his eyes were fixed firmly on the place where his thin fishing wire entered the water. My eyes drifted there too, focusing on the reflection of the sun and the silhouette of the trees against the glassy lake surface. It really wasn't so bad here. Almost pristine, now that I was paying attention. I found myself wondering why I hadn't accompanied Charlie more times to his little private piece of paradise…and wondering how many other opportunities to spend time with my father I had missed while obsessing over rainclouds.

"Thanks dad," I managed. It was funny how those kind of thoughts had never entered my mind before the date had been set for my life to end. "I'm going to miss you too, dad."

_More than I hope you'll ever have to understand._

There was an awkward silence in which our eyes met and stuck there for only a moment. Then Charlie let out a strange noise that could have been a snort or a laugh that broke the tension. "It's a good thing that old Dartmouth has heard of email, huh?"

I nodded, my lips tense as I thought about the next few months and shuddered at the possibility of what exactly those e-mail could contain:

_Dear dad,_

_So I decided not to go to Dartmouth this semester. I'm forcing my vampire husband to bite me and turn me into one of the undead. I'd love to see you over the holidays, but I'm afraid that if my in-laws don't keep me in check, you'll be my Christmas appetizer, and Forks will be the main course. By the way, how are the werewolves doing?_

_Love, Bella_

I chuckled darkly at my own sick sense of humor before the reality of the situation hit me with stunning force. This really might be my last fishing trip with my father. This moment could possibly be the last time I had to tell him exactly how important he'd been in my life…and I was utterly speechless. The words collided and twisted and tied my tongue in knots until I was absolutely certain that comprehensible language was impossible. I balked and fell back on good old sarcasm.

"Who are you kidding, dad," I mocked, silently chastising my own cowardice. "You're never going to figure out how to get into your e-mail account on that old house computer."

Charlie snorted. "Yeah, you're probably right. I should probably have you help me look for a new one before you go."

He turned away, taking longer than usual to reel in his line and making a big show of casting it again. In the silence, I heard a fish jump from somewhere behind us—mocking us. I sighed as the discomfort began to sink in again and gazed off into the trees wondering if I would be able to have one full day without a thought of all of the things that I was leaving behind before I left. So far, it was proving to be too much to ask for.

When his line had been properly cast, and the pole secured on one of the pole holders that I had bought him for Christmas two years ago, Charlie began again.

"You know, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I owe that boyfriend of yours quite a bit."

"_Husband_, dad." I couldn't believe _I_ was reminding him of that.

Charlie stared off into the tree line on the other side of the lake and tried to hide a cringe. "Yeah, you'll have to give me a while for that one, Bells." His brow creased, causing the wrinkles on his forehead to deepen. "You're still the stubborn little girl who refused to cry when I patched up her skinned knees every time she came up to see me. That white dress and the ring didn't do a thing to change that in my mind."

This time it was my turn to recast my line. I turned heavily toward the all but discarded pole with a lump forming in my throat, and started to reel it in, concentrating on holding back the tears that threatened to fall. Charlie could be so damn endearing sometimes. It made me wonder how my mom had ever been able to abandon him. I was suddenly wondering the same thing about myself.

"Edward's really done a lot for you," he persisted, watching my slow progress with a sympathetic smile. "I mean, you wouldn't even have dreamed of Dartmouth if he hadn't forced the application down your throat."

I suppressed a cringe of my own and tried not to imagine his reaction if he knew that I wouldn't have had a chance at Dartmouth if it weren't for the generous contribution that Carlisle had made in my name.

My father had no idea how generous my new family had been. I'd explained the car as a temporary loan from Carlisle until I was able to buy my own, and I'd explained away the lack of student loans with a last minute scholarship from the Cambridge Literary Institute. I'd had no idea if such and institute actually existed, but Jasper had enjoyed creating a website to collaborate my large white lie. Still, neither excuse had been incredibly believable, but I could never doubt the power of denial when it came to my parents. They would find out sooner or later the extent of the economic background of the family I'd married into. For now, they were content to believe that all of my money problems were just magically whisked away by money fairies and false scholarships.

Charlie was looking at me again, this time with an intensity that I rarely ever saw. "And he saved your life," he recalled. "That's something a dad doesn't ever forget."

I was suddenly fighting a familiar shudder—the one that ran down my spine every time I imagined exactly how many times Edward had saved my life…or how close he had come to taking it himself.

"I figure, out of all the guys you could have fallen for in Forks, he seems like the pick of the litter." He was looking back across the lake again. "And even though I still think you two are crazy for getting married so young, it's nice to know that my little girl is with someone who's smart enough to want to hold on to the best thing he's got."

I grinned, guessing exactly how much that confession had probably taken out of him. My father would sleep well tonight.

"Don't forget to mention how smart that daughter is for falling for a rich, handsome, doctor's son." I added wickedly.

Charlie let out a laugh that echoed across the lake. "Yeah, I should have known I could trust you to make good decisions. After all…you are my daughter, aren't you?"

I laughed with him, and half-heartedly recast my line. We spent the next hour in comfortable silence, watching mid-day flow gracefully into afternoon and counting the mayflies and mosquitoes that gathered over the boat. There was a good-sized cloud of them by the time I pulled in my pole for good and pulled out my book, hoping that a little literature would tide me over until Charlie decided the fish were no longer biting. Charlie smiled over at me.

"What am I going to do with all the shelf space when you take all those books off to college?" he wondered aloud.

"Trophy space?" I suggested jokingly. "For all of the sports event I'm going to place in at Dartmouth."

"I was thinking of putting all those school pictures back up again."

I groaned inwardly.

We finished the afternoon over a pizza at Chicago Ru's. Mushrooms and black olives. It was Charlie's favorite. I picked off the black olives as subtly as possible and mentally marked one more thing on the list of things that I wasn't going to miss when I was no longer able to eat food. I sat for the next forty-five minutes nibbling on a piece that had been properly picked clean, watching Charlie thoroughly enjoy the rest of the medium he'd ordered, and contemplating exactly how much I was going to miss my father.

It had been slowly occurring to me the entire week, that there would be a lot more pain involved than just the three days of venom burning through me. The loss I was preparing to suffer was, in itself, a form of venom…one that would take a lot longer than three days to stop hurting. I secretly hope—not for the first time since returning from Spain—that I would be the exception to the rule, and I would be able to see my father after only a few months. Years seemed impossibly long.

A thick lining of evening clouds were beginning to drift in again when the cruiser finally pulled in to the driveway. I'd begun counting the minutes until Edward's arrival the instant that we had left the restaurant headed toward home. I'd half expected to see the silver Volvo already parked in its usual place behind the corpse that was my truck, with Edward leaned against the hood with an expectant grin, but the space had been disappointingly empty as we pulled in.

Charlie had gone directly to his makeshift fish cleaning station in the back yard, and so I was passing the time and the last of the fleeting sunlight reading The Count of Monte Cristo for the second time on the back porch. Charlie whistled a tune that I didn't recognize as he cleaned his catch, and I kept my distance just in case the scent of fish blood produced the same effect as blood typing had. The last thing I needed was to start vomiting or faint right in front of my father just before Edward showed up.

It wasn't so bad. Charlie was faced away from me so my view of the repeated disembowelment was kept to a minimum. Every now and then, the breeze that was blowing the clouds and the rain back in would shift and I would catch a whiff of something that threatened to twist my stomach, but the scent was just different enough to avoid a fainting spell. It smelled sweeter than human blood…somehow more made for human consumption. I wondered if fish blood was also appropriate for vampire consumption, and vowed to ask Edward sometime tonight. The thought brought up recollections of the drastic change my diet would take in only a few weeks.

An incontrollable lust for human blood…the thought frightened and disgusted me. How would it be possible to crave something that curled my stomach just to think of it?

"A book about betrayal and revenge. Should I be worried?"

Edward's voice came from just millimeters away from my ear. The honey of his breath surrounded me and any answer I may have had to his question disappeared. The book closed almost involuntarily as his arms wrapped around me and his lips brushed my earlobe.

"How was hunting?" I asked, and turned to look up into his eyes. The lightest butterscotch.

"Fruitful," he responded. "And how was fishing?"

"I caught a fish! Charlie's cleaning it now."

His eyes flickered to Charlie, who was too absorbed in intestines to have noticed Edward's arrival. "Do you think you'll be able to convince Charlie to set you free for a day? Alice, Tanya, and Irina are going shopping in Seattle tomorrow." The slightest bit of annoyance twitched across his face. Then it was gone. "They want you to come."

The terrifying prospect of shopping with Alice in Seattle instantly began to battle with the promising possibility of escaping another day in the great outdoors with Charlie.

"Will you go with me this time?"

"Of course." He raised one eyebrow enticingly. "Do you think I would allow my innocent wife to be alone with three fashion-obsessed female vampires?" He shuddered. "With Alice in the lead, you would come back with three closets worth of clothing that we both know you'd never wear. You'll need someone there who has the ability to say no to my sister."

I smiled coyly, knowing full well that Edward was as useless as I was at saying no to Alice.

"OK, I'll go," I agreed. "But you're telling Charlie." The last thing I needed was a dose of my father's hurt-puppy-dog face to serve as an epilogue to the speech he'd given me today in the boat.

"Tell me what?"

I jumped, and turned around to see Charlie coming up the porch stairs, wiping the last remnants of his catch off on an old white t-shirt. Edward stifled a laugh.

"Dad, don't sneak up on me like that!" I snapped. Charlie's smile was almost as menacing as Edward's.

"Sorry Bells. I couldn't help it." He nodded toward Edward.

"I didn't hear you pull up," he said cheerfully, shoving the cloth with the fish blood into a belt loop. There was something about fish mutilation that always put Charlie in a better mood. "How was the hiking trip?"

"It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to my brothers and sisters, thank you for asking," Edward replied. I watched his eyes flicker from the T-shirt back to Charlie's grin and I wondered again if fish blood had the same call to him as the mountain lions or bears that he had just been hunting. "Charlie, Alice has plans to do some last minute college shopping in Seattle tomorrow and she's asked me to convince Bella to come. Would I be destroying another day outdoors for you two?"

His voice was perfectly uncertain, almost as if he didn't already hear the answer floating in Charlie's head. Charlie snorted and gave me a look of sympathy. Apparently, Alice's shopping skills were legendary.

"I suppose I can spare her for a day if it's for college," he muttered. "There's a Mariner's game on tomorrow anyway. Billy wanted me to watch it with him in LaPush."

"Wow, dad! I'm happy to see that you're getting past the whole…"

Charlie stuck his hand out to stop me. "Don't mention it!" he interrupted. "I don't even want to think about it anymore. That knowledge has done nothing but cause me an ulcer since it came out, and I figure as long as there aren't any mutilated bodies washing up on the LaPush beaches, I'd do much better just forgetting the whole thing ever happened."

He seemed incredibly satisfied with that solution as he pulled open the back screen door.

"I'll tell you what," he said, turning back. "I liked this place a whole lot better when your family was the strangest thing here." His eyes jerked toward Edward. "No offense intended, but a houseful of teenagers all raised by a couple as young as your folks just draws attention."

Edward's face was pleasantly impenetrable. "No offense taken, Charlie," he reassured. "We are a little strange."

Charlie disappeared into the house. I turned and slipped comfortably into Edward's arms feeling incredibly fortunate at that moment that I had a very high tolerance for strange.

I dialed the number from memory—one of the very few that I knew without having to look it up on my phone—and peered out the front window guiltily. Technically, I had been asked—or rather ordered—not to do what I was doing now. Edward had asked me to limit my communication with the pack this week…at least until Tanya and Irina were safely out of the lower forty-eight, and I had taken his not-quite-a-request seriously for four whole days. That had to be some kind of record for me.

The angry sounds of some semi-familiar Metallica song rang in my ear, causing me to smile. Edward had bought Seth a cell phone for his sixteenth birthday, and Seth had promptly gone crazy downloading all the free ringtones that he could get.

"Hello?" came the low voice at last. Relief washed over me.

"Hey, Seth, it's…"

"Oh, hey Bella!" he interrupted, recognizing my voice instantly. I knew there had been a reason why Seth was my favorite…next to his future pack leader, of course. "How's married life treating you?"

"I can't complain. How's Jacob?"

"He's the same as usual," he replied, but I thought I detected a darker tone. "You know…brooding, secretive, constantly hungry, a complete jerk. You'd love him."

"Very funny." I focused on my mission. "Listen, Seth, I was wondering if you would do me a favor and keep an extra eye on Charlie today while he's at Billy's. But, you know…don't let him _know_ that you're keeping an eye on him."

Charlie was still claiming plausible deniability with all things werewolf and seeming at ease enough, but I didn't want to push my luck. I'd slept uneasily all night, plagued by nightmares, and I had woken with a sense of foreboding that would not go away. My instincts had never been up to par with the werewolf or vampire residents of our tiny little town, but I had learned to trust them over the years just the same, and today, that meant keeping an extra set of eyes on my father.

Seth snickered on the other end of the line. "Sure, Bella. You don't even have to ask."

"Thanks Seth. You just made my day a lot less stressful." _Now if you could just get me out of a vampire shopping spree, everything would be perfect._

"I aim to please," he snorted, "Hey Bells…"

A scuffle on the other side of the line seemed to stop his line of thought. I listened as patiently as possible to the half muffled argument that was unfolding on Seth's side as I stared out the window and into the half-lit driveway. Edward would be here any minute.

"Seth?"

"Bella?" a feminine voice responded. It was high-pitched and just a bit too nasal to be pleasant. I sighed.

"Hey, Leah. What's up?"

"How much longer are they staying?"

No, _What's new in Forks?_ No, _How's packing going?_ It was typical Leah—straight to the grain. I rolled my eyes and tried to listen for an engine outside. I could hear a light patter as the rain began. Great.

"They're going back to Alaska when Edward and I go to New Hampshire. Edward already talked to Sam about it."

"How long will that be?"

I performed a quick count in my head, marveling at my own ability to control my voice as I answered.

"Three days." I was surprised to realize that this was the first time I had ever done the calculation. I only had three days left to pack…and only three days left to say goodbye to Charlie, possibly forever. I frowned, and checked the front window again. Nothing.

"Do you know how many extra watches Sam's got us pulling because of those two leeches?" Leah's voice pulled me back. "I haven't slept a full night since your wedding!"

"I know, Leah, and I'm sorry." I sighed, exasperated. It seemed as if I had been repeating those last two words way more than I wanted to lately. I pressed my forehead against the side wall as I continued. "I don't like it any more than you do. You'll just have to be patient." Patience was something that was in short supply on both sides of this conversation. "They won't go anywhere near LaPush again."

I crossed my fingers that this was true.

"I don't even know why Sam bothers to listen to you," she snapped. "It's just going to get worse when Jake gets back and takes control." I exhaled heavily, recognizing the beginning of a Leah-patented rant. I didn't have time for this. "And if Jake expects me to follow orders from you just because he's in love…"

"Hey, Leah, I'm sorry, but I've got to get going. Should I call back a little later?" My fingers were still crossed for the negative response.

Leah snorted. "Three days," she repeated, and hung up the phone. Her capacity for courtesy astounded everyone around her.

"So will Seth watch Charlie for you today?"

Edward's voice caused me to jump and twist around a little too fast to seem innocent. He was leaned casually against the wall, his expression patient and worried at the same time. I blushed. Caught red handed.

"Edward, I'm sorry…"

"Don't be," he said, taking my hand and leading me toward the door. "You should never be apologetic for worrying about your father. But your concern was unnecessary. I'd already asked Seth last night."

I frowned. "Why would you do that? Did Alice see something?" A premonition at this point wouldn't have surprised me at all with the dreams I'd had last night.

"No," he reassured me, slipping his arm around me as we reached the entryway. "You spoke in your sleep last night. His name was prevalent. I thought that you'd be more at ease if he were under constant vigilance."

A smile twitched at my lips. Edward traced it lovingly with his fingers, but I sensed a distant distraction as he stopped to open the door.

"Is there something else bothering you?" I asked him. He grinned.

"I'm about to spend an entire day with my wife for the first time since our honeymoon. What could possibly be bothering me…besides the three thousand times I will have to battle my sister's will today, of course?"

He ushered me out the door, locking it behind us. I turned down the driveway to find Alice, Irina, and Tanya all smiling eagerly at me from the back seat of the Guardian. No wonder I hadn't seen the Volvo.

"We're taking my car?"

"I thought it would be more appropriate," Edward mocked, raising one eyebrow in amusement. "With you in the car, you never know when we might have use for missile-proof armor."

I was sulking, but not arguing as I followed him toward the car. With my conversion looming on the horizon and a war between vampires and wolves that I had suddenly found my puny mortal self in the middle of, these days, he was probably right.

Long drives had always seemed significantly shorter with Edward at the wheel, pushing the car to his usual insane speeds, but the trip to Seattle proved an exception to that rule. I sat in the front passenger seat with Edward's hand on my leg most of the way, listening to the excited chatter from the three girls in the back seat and growing steadily less enthusiastic about the day with each question tossed casually in my direction.

Most of them revolved around my fashion preferences and favorite brand names, which left me with a sneaking suspicion that I had been invited more as a human mannequin than a passive observer. As the conversation drifted into names of designers that I no longer recognized, I caught myself glancing toward the odometer and wishing, for the first time ever, that Edward would go faster. He was silent and withdrawn for most of the journey—working to tune out the barrage of estrogen oriented banter that emanated from the back seat, I assumed.

But by the time we reached the private fashion boutiques just off the main streets of downtown Seattle, I was convinced that there was something more distracting him than just a mental fashion block. Alice was content to begin in the shops that she was accustomed to, with names that would never have appeared in the tourism section of a society magazine, and with price tags that had me wondering whether there wasn't gold or diamonds spun into some of the fabric.

Edward performed stoically, waiting in silence at my side and sagely holding back his laughter as the three women took it upon themselves to familiarize me with every designer I had not recognized on the trip up. Every now and then, I would notice a furrowing of the brow or a subtle tightening of his lips as he watched Tanya and Irina pour over bins of scarves or isles of overpriced patent leather heels, and I would wonder what secrets he was seeing in their minds beyond acquisitions and accessories…and why it seemed to be bothering him so much.

Despite his darkening demeanor, Edward once again proved my personal hero, stepping in at all of the right moments when it looked as if the task of flawed fashion model was wearing down my will to protest whatever Alice had in line to buy for me. We miraculously left Alice's higher-end stores with only one shopping bag full of clothing that would serve as decoration for the back of my closet for an eternity.

I didn't fare as well when we entered the Pacific Place mall at Tanya's request, however. It seemed, much to my discontent, that the Denali sisters were much more practical than Alice. There were stores that I recognized, at prices I could almost afford. My low tolerance to shopping induced stress combined with my impending need to increase my wardrobe for college, whittled away both Edward's and my ability to object to Alice. By the time four o'clock rolled around, she'd managed to triple the amount of shopping bags in Edward's arms.

Edward's mood had grown painfully mysterious by the time my stomach began to rumble, graciously reminding me of just exactly how human I really was. Instead of seeing this as a hindrance, this time, I looked up at Edward as if I'd been granted the most precious gift of the day. This was my opportunity to break away from the three pairs of supersonic ears and harass Edward about his increasingly annoying bouts of brooding.

"I'm hungry!" I almost sang. It came out more as though I had just won the lottery. Edward stared at me for a moment in confusion before reading my expression and recognizing his chance to escape as well. His smile didn't nearly mask the relief on his face as he glanced over at Alice.

"It seems you're not as gracious a host as you pride yourself on, Alice," he chided. "Here it is, nearly time for dinner, and Bella hasn't eaten since this morning."

Alice looked over at me miserably. "Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry! I knew I was going to forget something on this trip! We'll go right now. I've heard good things about Rover's. What do you think, Edward?"

Edward smiled knowingly as I prepared my own objection. "Actually, Alice, I've heard quite a few compliments about the restaurants here on the fourth level." He indicated the escalators about fifteen feet behind us. "You ladies continue your escalades in the shopping mall. I'd like an intimate dinner with my wife, if you don't mind."

Tanya's knowing smile could have lit the entire mall as she dragged Alice away. Alice didn't protest. She gave me a quick "you'll be missing the best part" look, and then followed Tanya and Irina toward the entrance of Fredericks of Hollywood. I silently gave thanks for the incredibly fortuitous timing of my hunger. Ten more feet would have found me modeling corsettes and lacy push-up bras for three women who could run around for all eternity without one if they so chose.

"We'll call you if we need you to carry anything, Edward," Alice called back quickly with a grin. I breathed a sigh of relief as the three moved fluidly on to the lingerie without their human doll. Edward's eyes lingered suspiciously for only a moment on the two pale women that accompanied her. They could have passed as mannequins in the same windows they were now surveying. Then his arms slipped gratefully around me and his smile returned.

"I believe I owe your appetite a great amount of gratitude," he said as we started off in the opposite direction toward the escalator. "Where would you like to eat?"

I really was hungry, but not even the promise of food was going to distract me from taking advantage of the precious little time we were destined to have alone today. I had served my time as a paper doll. Now it was his turn to dish.

"How about someplace private," I suggested. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Where you can tell me exactly what has been bothering you all day."

He sighed. "Bella, has it occurred to you that it may simply be taxing to be the only male on a female-centered excursion?"

It had occurred to me, and I had promptly discarded it. I had not yet come upon anything—apart from keeping me alive and out of trouble—that had ever been mentally taxing enough to silence Edward for an entire day.

"We had a deal," I reminded him. "No secrets. You've been walking around Seattle staring down Tanya and Irina like they were about to walk into a bank and commit armed robbery all day…and don't think they haven't noticed you staring too." Edward's eyes widened in alarm for only a fraction of a second, and then they were impenetrable once again. "I'm not meeting back up with them until you tell me what you're worried about."

He seemed to contemplate that for a moment, staring into my eyes as if judging my potential. I glared back at him as stubbornly as possible, and he seemed to find something there that caused his shoulders to sink in submission.

"All right," he agreed, taking my hand as we mounted the escalator. "How do you feel about Thai food?"

Thai Ginger was on the fourth level just a few yards from the escalators. We entered through what looked to be a typical ancient Chinese entrance, past two ornate wooden pillars painted jade, supporting a roof that hung down feet below the skylights of the actual mall roof. It was decorated with stucco and curving up at the corners. It reminded me of the pictures of the Forbidden City in northeastern China that I had seen hanging in Mr. Jefferson's classroom.

The interior was much the same as the entryway, with elaborately carved and polished wooden hangings of dragons and strangely delicate figures playing instruments that I had only seen in other Thai and Chinese restaurants decorating the walls. It was funny how Chinese and Thai food were often grouped together in the northern United States. I wondered just how different the two cultures really were.

The waiter greeted us with a strained smile, and Edward asked him for a booth in the back, away from the crowd. We were led past the crowded center section of the dining area, past a partition with a pattern of intricate flowers curling up into each beautifully carved corner, and toward a section of booths in the back where the lighting was softer, and the music was only a whisper. I slipped into one side of a large corner booth as the waiter took our drinks order. Edward ordered us both Cokes.

"Do you realize how long it's taken us to finally make it to Seattle together?" I began, trying to coax a smile out of him before the interrogation. "It was supposed to be our first official date."

It worked, but his smile was contradictory. "We flew into Seattle five days ago, Bella. Or was our honeymoon that forgettable?"

My two weeks in Spain and my one fleeting night making love to Edward Cullen—something that I'd dreamed of almost since the day he'd first saved my life—were anything but forgettable. I blushed as our drinks arrived.

"Airports never count."

His smiled turned genuine, and his hand reached across the table to take mine. "In that case, I'm sorry for taking so long to fulfill my promise."

I made a small dramatic display of brimming tears as I took a sip of the Coke in front of me. "If only my truck would have lived to see the city."

Edward looked amused and horrified at the same time. "Four vampires and you stuffed into the tiny cab of that ill-fated truck and chugging down the road toward Seattle at a steady fifty five miles per hour?" he scoffed. "As if the trip at 115 wasn't uncomfortable enough for you!"

"You noticed?" I hadn't realized it was possible to blush deeper. He chuckled quietly.

"I may not be able to read your mind, but your heartbeat is twice as reliable." The smile faded slowly from his face. His eyes began to drift to the partition beside us. "I can't even imagine what I'll do when it ceases to beat."

My grin edged into mischievousness as I remembered our first glorious morning in Spain, and his strange revelation to me. "You know, I can think of a way for you to read my mind whenever you want to."

He turned back to stare at me, not understanding my implications at first. Then his lips curved into a desirous smile and his eyes closed slowly. He opened them again when the waiter appeared to take our orders, but his lascivious expression did not change. I ordered the pad thai, and tried to stare back at him with a conviction that equaled his own, but I was no match for him. His eyes didn't stray from my own as he assured the waiter that he was indeed not hungry. I could only imagine what images were running through his head in that moment. I was pretty sure that they were the same ones running through mine. Ones that I had promised not to pursue again for another four months. This was not healthy. I turned my thoughts—and hopefully his as well—to more recent events.

"Is it Tanya and Irina? Is that why you're worried today?"

The smile melted into frustration and he exhaled heavily.

"That's a large part of it."

"Are they still thinking about way to convince you to break the treaty?"

There was a long silence before his answer. "I don't know," he admitted, reluctantly.

"What do you mean?"

"Irina and Tanya seem to be going out of their way to hide any thoughts they may have about the wolves," He flinched and gazed down at the table. "…or any thoughts about you." The last part seemed to hurt him as it was being spoken.

"But why would they do that?"

"I don't know, Bella!" The fist of the hand that was not holding mine was balled in frustration. His words had come out sounding much angrier than he had intended, but there was a hidden knowledge behind it. Edward knew exactly why the sisters were hiding their thoughts from him.

"What aren't you telling me?" It was a demand, not a question, spoken low and firm.

Edward's eyes did not leave the table. He was still as stone. When my food arrived a few moments later, he was still unmoving, breathing steadily in and out and choosing his words wisely. "They think that you have an uncomfortably large amount of control over the Quileute wolves."

It took a moment for the information to sink in. I had been expecting something much worse…perhaps a murder plot concealed by my own distant in-laws. The thought of my being able to control anything that the LaPush pack did was not even on my list of possibilities. I couldn't help but giggle.

"That's crazy!"

Edward's eyes rose to mine again, and he looked suddenly affronted.

"Is it?" he persisted without a hint of a smile. "Try to see it from their point of view, Bella. If you ask any of the wolves for favors, it's done. If you ask for discretion in our ongoing feud, it's granted."

"That's just logic!" I protested. "All I ever ask them to do is NOT kill my in-laws!"

_And to look after my father while I'm gone. And to discard their instincts and come to a wedding full of their mortal enemies. And to fight, possibly to the death, to save me from a group of rogue vampires._

I shifted guiltily in my seat and tried to meet Edward's eyes as I filled my fork with noodles. Something in his expression told me that he knew exactly to where my mind had wandered. He continued objectively.

"Irina heard our conversation with Sam our first night back. She knows that you've become an integral part of holding our treaty with the Quileute tribe. She heard the wolves threaten me one moment, and then promise to watch over you the next moment." I wanted to protest again, but Edward held up one finger. I took a bite of the noodles instead. "Tanya was there to see how a werewolf in full attack mode was able to stop of his own volition to avoid killing you. That is not something that werewolves are capable of."

I frowned as Edward took in another frustrated breath. "And now, thanks to that little scene, both Tanya and Irina can also discern that Jacob Black—the wolf who is ultimately destined to be the pack alpha—is enough in love with you to suppress some of the strongest instincts in existence."

He frowned down at the table again, releasing my hand and bringing it to his brow in frustration. He let his eyes slide up to mine again reluctantly and I could see a well concealed pain there that I hadn't noticed before. "I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this fact doesn't affect me adversely."

I was at a loss for words. He had never been this blunt with me before…at least not about Jacob. I began to search for the argument that I had been building as I'd listened, but Edward's honesty had made it disappear.

"What Jacob did wasn't such a big deal," I began lamely. "You overcame your instinct to kill me when you first saw me. Tanya and Irina don't follow their instincts to kill every man that they…play with. It's possible to suppress instinct.

Edward looked down gravely at the table again. "Not for a werewolf."

I sighed, my frustration at a very familiar argument overcoming my newfound guilt. "Really, Edward. I thought we were past all of this "uncontrollable werewolf" stuff. Wasn't fighting with them enough of…"

"_Werewolves_ can't stop themselves from killing once they've phased," Edward interrupted firmly. I was still frowning and my mouth had frozen on the letter f, making me look somewhat like and angry chipmunk. "_Werewolves_ can't control who or what they kill when they are in wolf form. They can't plot or strategize. They can't communicate through anything more than a series of primitive growls and barks." His hands formed fists again on the table in front of him. "And they can't kill vampires…at least not without a ratio of at least eight to one. Their teeth can, in fact, puncture our flesh, but it is impossible for one werewolf to leave a mortal wound."

Bewilderment colored my expression. "But Jacob said…I saw Seth…" I gave up. Edward had jumped into strange new territory.

"I don't understand," I admitted.

"Jacob is not a werewolf, Bella. None of the Quileutes are," he said matter-of-factly. "They are something much more dangerous….to us at least."

I gulped and stared down at my full plate of noodles. Suddenly, I wasn't nearly as hungry as I had thought when we'd entered the restaurant.


	10. Violation

**I've been promising a chapter after only a week for a while and not once kept my promise, so here it finally is. Enjoy, because real life is kicking my butt these days and I don't get to escape into this one quite as much as I'd like to.**

**Again, I'm starting off with a thank you to _RowanMoon_ and _giselle-lx_, the superbetas and partners in real life escapism! I'm hoping they're more successful than me in that department this week!**

* * *

I pushed the plate away, pulling my eyes from its contents and trying not to let the bewilderment show on my face as I frowned back at Edward. We had both seen Sam, Seth, Leah, Jacob—every single one of them—phase from human to wolf. Edward had fought beside them in their wolf form. We'd seen how they operate—in pack behavior. We'd seen how they communicate—through pack telepathy. There was no other option. They had to be werewolves. But Edward's eyes did not falter, or even blink as he analyzed my reaction from across the table.

I gave in to my confusion. "If they're not werewolves, what are they?"

Edward shrugged. "We don't know exactly. As far as we've been able to ascertain from their histories, they are some form of shapeshifters. They only take the wolf form because it was the choice of the first phasing elder." He pushed the plate back in front of me. "You need to eat, Bella. You're not immortal yet."

"You mean they could take other forms?" I asked, ignoring him. "Turn into other animals?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I can't be certain. I'm basing everything that I'm telling you on tribal legend, but according to certain Quileute tomes, once a form is chosen, it doesn't change." He frowned, and I guessed that he enjoyed basing all of his knowledge of something on legend just about as much as I did. "If the stories are trustworthy, the wolves in LaPush are wolves for eternity as long as they continue to phase."

I rolled my eyes and picked up my fork again, wondering just how many different races of immortal creatures I would have to hide my knowledge of before my life became one enormous fiction. I could almost feel myself slipping down the rabbit hole as it was.

"How long have you known about this?"

He watched as I put another forkful of noodles in my mouth, and then his eyes wandered toward the far wall. "Oh, we've known they weren't werewolves from our first encounter with Ephraim Black," he admitted. "Carlisle had some experience with the real werewolves during his mortal years, and he came across a few of them during his stay with the Volturi as well. He knew enough about them when we crossed paths with Jacob's grandfather to know that we were not facing werewolves." His jaw tightened, and he folded his hands together slowly. "If that had been the case, Carlisle would never have entered into a treaty with them. It is not in a werewolf's control to honor it."

"Then all this time, you knew that Jacob and his friends weren't dangerous, and you still made such a big deal about me seeing him?"

"I said they weren't _werewolves,_ Bella. I never said they weren't dangerous." His face was incredulous, with a hint of the anger that always appeared when it seemed to him that I had grossly underestimated some part of his world. "It is still a question of inhuman strength and speed being wielded by adolescents that are controlled by hormones and emotions. If anything, the shapeshifters are _more_ dangerous than true werewolves. You only have to look at Emily Young's face to understand that. The fact that Jacob has been able to control his temper thus far does not mean he is infallible."

When he looked at me again, his expression was severe, regretful. I didn't need to read minds to see the line that he had drawn between Jacob and himself with his last statement. I pushed on.

"Does Jacob know?"

Edward shook his head. "Until a year ago, Jacob thought all of the legends of his tribe were nothing more than entertaining bedtime stories. All he needs is time to read his history from the new perspective he's been given. I'm sure he'll arrive at his own conclusions eventually."

I thought about this. Jacob had been devastated for months when he had discovered what cards heredity had dealt him. It had taken him much longer than the other wolves to accept his role as a protector of the tribe. In many ways, his escape to the north was still an attempt to piece together the two warring identities that he had discovered inside himself only a little over a year ago. Would it really matter to him whether his label was werewolf or shapeshifter? His destiny was the same, no matter what title he was given. The only ones who seemed even remotely concerned with species names were off perusing the designer racks with Alice on the second level.

And then it hit me.

"But this is great!" I exclaimed, startling the waiter as he tried to replace my empty glass of Coke. I hadn't notice him arrive. He gave me a cutting look and then glanced, concerned, over at Edward's untouched beverage before retreating to the waiter's station on the other side of the room.

Edward looked puzzled.

"How exactly?" he asked.

I took a long, drawn-out drink to organize my argument before I began. Edward waited patiently with a doubtful expression.

"Tanya and Irina are causing problems because they think you've made a treaty with a bunch of crazy, rabid, uncontrollable monsters like the ones who killed their families. But we both know that none of the wolves in LaPush would hurt anyone, unless they were a threat to their friends or family. All we have to do is make Irina and Tanya see that the Quileute wolves aren't even real werewolves, and they'll understand why you entered into the treaty with them to begin with."

It was so simple to me that I didn't understand why the issue hadn't been resolved long ago. Weren't vampires supposed to be quicker than humans at everything? But Edward's head had started to shake in protest before I had even finished my suggestion.

"That will never happen." He insisted in a tone that was suddenly as cold as his eyes. His skin had grown a shade paler even in the soft yellow lamplight. I didn't understand.

"Why not?"

"Bella, you've heard their tribal histories first hand. The Quileute leader's evolved into shapeshifters to protect their people from vampires. The only time that their shapeshifting abilities reappear is in the presence of a threat from us. Do you really want to tell two vampires that spent over five centuries hunting wolves that the ones living next door to their closest friends have evolved a species that specializes in killing our kind?"

I let his words sink in, remembering his unexplained effort to silence me at the confrontation between Tanya and Jacob at our reception. "Is that why you didn't want them to know about Seth helping you kill Victoria?"

"Of course."

"But they already knew that the wolves killed Laurent."

His expression was guarded as he waited for a waiter to pass before he began his explanation.

"Tanya and Irina have strong suspicions that the wolves, as a pack, managed to kill Laurent, but their previous knowledge of werewolves contradicts that notion. The only other occasions when a werewolf has managed to take down one of us has been when the vampire is outnumbered at least twelve to one. Fortunately, everything they've discovered about the Quileute pack, including what they know of their numbers at the time of Laurent's death, has kept those suspicions from becoming anything more dangerous. That fact is probably the only reason that the incident at our wedding reception did not end in death."

He avoided my eyes as he finished and I couldn't help but notice that he was excluding his opinion of exactly which side the deaths would have been on. It was a question of centuries of experience versus the element of surprise. I shuddered, hating the idea that it was only a fortuitous misunderstanding that had kept my wedding night from becoming a massacre.

"Of course, your reckless behavior that night significantly increased those suspicions…and created new ones," he admonished. " Now they both suspect that you have some sort of unnatural power over the alpha of the pack."

"Over _Jacob_?" I half-laughed, half-snorted. "I _wish_ I had a super powers over Jacob! Then maybe I could make him see reason and stop wolfing around all over the country!" I scooped up the last forkful of noodles and marveled at how hungry I'd been in the end.

Edward's expression did not hold the tiniest fragment of humor. "This is not funny, Bella," he warned. "Do you remember the part of Irina's tale involving the African tribe?"

I nodded.

"Their leader was a vampire, and they caused chaos in the Congo region for centuries. Can you imagine how serious it would be if they thought that you could lead the Quileutes? And how much worse it would be if they knew just how much more powerful they were than werewolves?"

"But I'm not even a vampire."

My rebuff had been too quick for me to truly think about the implication behind his words. Edward waited, patient and expressionless, for the obvious to sink in. My heart sunk as it did. I would be a vampire in just under four months.

"They think that when I'm a vampire, I'm going to make an army of wolves?" The revelation sounded just as crazy out loud as it had in my head—like an excerpt from a cheesy horror film with too many cheap special effects and not enough plotline, but I wasn't in the laughing mood anymore. It seemed my life had become one of those horror films.

Edward's shoulders sank in frustration. "I don't _know_ what they're thinking." I could tell that it hurt him to admit it. "You have to understand that Tanya and Irina have had a thousand years of practice at hiding their thoughts from someone vastly more powerful than me."

A picture of a sinister, black haired vampire with a calculating smirk and red eyes that did not seem even remotely human crossed my mind and I wondered to myself how it was possible to hide any thoughts from a being who saw your entire history in a handshake.

"What can we do?" I asked, downtrodden.

"_You_ can prepare for your first semester of college," he replied, his mood taking one of his frustratingly characteristic 180 degree turns. His tone was almost fatherly now. "And I can only continue to do what I'm doing…search their thoughts for any anomalies and try to convince them that my wife has no aspirations into werewolf domination."

I sighed.

"You know, Tanya and Irina will find out about the differences between the LaPush wolves and real werewolves eventually." How much time could two immortal mythological creatures avoid contact, even with a 1500 mile buffer? And how exactly had my strange little piece of the world suddenly become so filled with feuding fairy-tale villains?

"I know," he responded miserably. "But at least I can make sure that they are far to the north and in the comfort of their own home when they discover that fact. It may eliminate their desire to pursue violence."

We fell silent as the waiter appeared to take my plate and ask if we would like to share a Black Sticky Rice Pudding. Edward assured him, in as pleasant a voice as possible, that we would pass. I cringed as I tried to imagine what a desert with such an unappealing name could possibly taste like. Edward asked for the check, and the waiter disappeared with a smile, leaving two small after dinner mints in his wake. I took one and began to unwrap it, thankful that there were no fortune cookies in a Thai restaurant. I had all the fortune telling I could take in the form of a sister-in-law.

_Which reminded me…_

"What does Alice see?"

Edward had to have her watching. If he couldn't fully rely on his own talents, he was definitely relying on hers.

But his face was a mask of frustration again as he pointed to his temple with one long pale finger. "Untraceable," he reminded me. "Not even Alice can see her. She's just like the wolves, which probably further explains her fascination with them."

My eyebrows formed a worried frown. Not even I was able to escape Alice's constant vigilance, and I was the strange exception to most talents. It was unsettling, to say the least, that Irina could go unseen in the present _and_ the future.

"But Alice can still see Tanya, right?"

He nodded. "Tanya is on a plane to Anchorage on Monday morning—I'm assuming with Irina by her side," he reassured. "Alice sees her take off without any problems."

"And does Tanya think I'm a future wolf lord too?"

"As far as I can tell, Tanya has no opinion on the matter. She's only here to support Irina. She has a great dislike of the wolves, of course, but she felt horrible for her reaction at our wedding, and she's been trying not to allow her aversion to become an obsession." A smirk broke through the gloom on his face. "In any case, she has other things to brood about…for the moment, at least."

I blinked, intrigued. "What other things?"

"Well, with you off pursuing human activities," he stared down at the last mint. "Who do you think is taking on your duties as Alice's personal pin-up doll?"

He was trying to change the subject, and doing a wonderful job. There was only one way that he could know what Alice was making Tanya do in this minute. "You're listening to her thoughts right now."

"Every last, infinitely patient one," he said, his grin widening. "And Irina's. I'm hoping that if they spend enough time away from us, they'll let their guard down and I'll be able to catch something more than just price tags and dress sizes."

I took a sip of my Coke. "How is that working for you?"

He frowned. "Both of them are remarkably focused on clothing." He picked up the mint and began to unwrap it slowly. "But at least they are no longer trying on lingerie."

"Edward!" I scolded, snatching the mint from his hands. He laughed.

"Bella, they are practically my sisters! Of course I didn't look!"

The waiter showed up with the check, and a bill appeared magically in one of Edward's hands as the other grabbed mine under the table.

"No change," he said with a smile. The waiter thanked him and disappeared.

Our legs intertwined almost casually under the table, and I was reminded of our first dinner together at La Bella Italia in Port Angeles and his strict no-touch policy. I had never imagined at that meeting that only two years later, I would be sitting in a restaurant, staring into the same intense amber eyes, this time with his ring on my finger and the unforgettable memory of his body in the moonlight to accompany it. I was glad I had summoned the courage to confront him that night.

I was also glad that the waiter was a male this time.

Edward stood with one of his swift, not-quite-human movements, and pulled me to my feet beside him. "Are you ready to relieve Tanya of her modeling duties for a few more hours?"

I groaned. "Why can't Alice try on her own clothes?"

"You've seen the size of her closet. Alice doesn't need any more clothes." His arm slipped around me as he escorted me to the exit, his scent lingering just long enough to take my breath away. "She planned this expedition for the three of you. She convinces herself that she is doing you a favor, no matter how much you protest." The hostess at the entryway caught sight of Edward as we passed, and dropped the menus she had been putting away. Edward pulled me closer and kissed my forehead gently, seeming not to notice the scramble to recover the menus.

"Try to look at it positively," he whispered into my hair. "The stores close at nine."

I let him lead me out, grumbling the whole way.

Nine-thirty found us all piled into the Guardian with a full trunk and no foot room. I was exhausted. Alice had insisted on shoe shopping after my dinner, and we had expended all of my energy and almost all of Edward's patience in limiting her purchases for me to two nearly practical pairs of dress shoes.

Tanya, Irina, and Alice sat in the back seat again, playing over each horrified look that had appeared on my face as the heels that they had all picked out for me slowly got higher and higher.

"Only a little over three months left, Bella," Tanya had assured me after recalling a particularly horrendous pair of tiger-skin, needle heel pumps that I would never in my entire life have had any purpose for whatsoever. "You'll develop a taste for the elegant and the eccentric once you gain our…gifts, shall we say?"

I chuckled dubiously. "You mean if I don't trip on the heels Alice bought me today and break my neck before I can even make it to vampire status?"

"Dark sarcasm!" Irina was beaming beside her sister as she turned her eyes toward our overly silent driver. "Edward, now all you have to do is assure me that she spends days at a time brooding, and I will believe that she's truly your match in every way!"

Edward smiled and kept his eyes on the road.

Unlike the journey up to the Emerald City, the return trip was surprisingly much more pleasant. With Alice's spending addiction momentarily satiated, and Tanya and Irina on a strategic quest to fit every last one of their purchases into the meager two-item luggage limit enforced by Alaska airlines, I felt my anti-shopping defenses finally lowering and I allowed myself to sit back and enjoy the easy banter that bounced from family member to family member.

"It would have been much less problematic if you would have foreseen this conundrum and requested the jet from Carmen and Eleazar when you came down, Irina," Tanya insisted after a discussion on how to properly pack cashmere threatened to become an argument.

"You forget that the plane was elsewhere deployed when I made my impromptu journey south, and no doubt being used for much more exciting purposes."

Irina's eyes glided amusedly from Edward to me in the rear view mirror, leaving little doubt as to what she imagined had occurred during our seven hour flight to and from Madrid in the private jet. I glanced toward Edward with a guilty grin and wondered why whatever was in Irina's thoughts hadn't occurred to me on the plane.

There was no guilt at all in Edward's smile as he met Irina's gaze in the rear view mirror. "You know, Irina, if you were able to limit your male conquests, I'm sure that Carmen would have no objection to lending you the jet for a time. It really is quite comfortable."

Irina's laugh was almost wicked. "Oh, Edward, don't fool yourself. You can't even imagine the things that have happened in that plane."

Edward flinched and his hand slipped to my leg as if to steady himself. "No, but I see that you have no problem doing so." His eyes shifted accusatorily toward Tanya. "Bella ate on that table!"

Tanya gave him an innocent grin. "It's been cleaned since then."

I focused on the glow of the headlights ahead of us, certain beyond anything else in that moment that I did not want to know what had happened on the plane…and also that next time, I would insist on Northwest Airlines.

The conversation turned to much more innocent things as the car sped down the highway, following the headlights home at break-neck speed. Alice and Tanya delved into an idea for Rosalie's next wedding, while Irina and Edward chatted good-naturedly about the remodeling job that Esme had agreed to do on their Denali home. I secretly hoped that it was only me who noticed how Edward's brow twitched every time Irina would answer a question. He was searching for much more than decorating tips, I was certain.

I listened with waning interest, acutely aware of his hand on my leg, and marveling at the silences that never seemed to be awkward between the four of them, until we rounded the last bend and the lights of the house appeared. The headlights had just spilled onto the first of the large cedars when my cell phone sounded from my pocket. I'd forgotten that I had even brought it along. Most of the time, it sat forgotten on the desk in my bedroom. The only two people who ever called me were Edward and Charlie, and lately I'd had pretty unlimited access to both. I'd brought it along that day to ease my mind, and I dug it quickly out of my pocket as Edward pulled the car around.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bella." It was Billy. He'd no doubt convinced Charlie to stay at his place until I got home. "How's the trip going?"

"Hi, Billy! Actually we're just getting back. Is my dad still over there with you?"

I heard a sharp intake of breath beside me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's hands clench suddenly around the steering wheel. The car came to a final jolting halt that caused all of our seatbelts to lock.

"Yeah, the game went into extra innings, and he was just wondering…"

"Hang up."

Cold. Emotionless.

I peered over at him, puzzled. Edward had grown paler than I'd seen him since our graduation night and his eyes were suddenly beyond furious as he clung to the steering wheel. It looked as though he was putting all of his effort into not smashing it right now.

"Bella?" Billy's voice was suddenly distant on the other end of the receiver. Edward's mouth twitched and all eyes flickered momentarily to the cell phone in my hand.

"Hang up, Bella." His voice was too calm. Too even. And his eyes were black.

"Edward, what happened?" Tanya asked from behind us.

He didn't answer. No one moved. No one made an attempt to exit the car. Tanya and Alice exchanged looks of confusion as my brain stuttered and searched for a way to end the conversation with Billy without causing him to worry. Before I could think of anything to say, Edward had swung around in his seat, and was glaring at Irina with a detached fury.

"What did you _do_?" he hissed between clenched teeth. Irina's eyes were wide and terrified, but the confusion that I'd seen in both Alice and Tanya's expressions was utterly absent from hers. She knew what was happening.

"Bella!" Billy called on the other line, more insistently this time. I'd already forgotten I was still holding the phone. "Bella is something going on there?"

"Billy, can I call you back in a few minutes?"

Irina's eyes became chilling as she stared Edward down.

"Is it serious? Do I need to send some of the boys?"

Before I could even think of how to answer him, Edward had pulled the phone from my hand, his eyes still locked on his cousin.

"Hello Billy," he said, his voice portraying a self-possession that did not show at all on his face. The contrast frightened me. "There's no trouble at all here. We're just in the process of saying an early farewell to our guests. Bella will be home without fail in about an hour. Thank you for your concern, Billy." He hung up the phone without waiting for a response.

Alice gasped suddenly. She'd seen something.

"Edward, don't!"

But he was already out of the car. Before I even knew what was happening, he had the opposite passenger door open, and had Irina by one shoulder. She was pinned against the side of the Guardian before Tanya could even make a move in her sister's defense. Irina did not resist, and she held out a hand in restraint when Tanya flew around to her side.

"Edward, I needed to be sure they were harmless," Irina stammered before his hand closed around her neck. Tanya growled and strained in her stance, her eyes shifting from Edward's grip to Irina's restraining hand.

"What else have you done, Irina?" Edward demanded through dangerously sharp teeth. His voice was furious, and he looked just as much like a vampire as he had in his final battle with Victoria.

"Nothing more!" she insisted. "No one saw me. No one knows." But as I watched in utter confusion, Edward's eyes grew impossibly wider and the hand that was not holding Irina's neck suddenly dug into the door of the Guardian. I saw the chrome mold into the perfect indentation of four long fingers.

"Edward, what is going on?"

It was Alice from behind me. She had exited the car, but had gone no further toward the fray. I recognized her stance as one that a mother lion would have adapted to protect her cubs, and I realized with dismay that, in this case, I was the one she was protecting. Edward didn't respond.

"If you don't take your hands off my sister or explain yourself now, Edward, I'll cut you down myself." The threat in Tanya's voice was very real. She was livid and ready to spring, and looking every bit as vampiric as Edward. He disregarded her completely.

"If I find that you've harmed any one of those people, Irina…"

"_Wolves_, Edward!" Irina replied harshly, struggling against the arm that held her pinned. Edward didn't budge. "They're not people! They are animals!"

"Are their families animals too?" Edward argued, only inches away from her face. His lip was pulled back in a snarl, his brilliant white teeth kept at bay only by sheer force of will. "Is Bella an animal? Is her _father_?"

At the mention of my father, the daze that had settled over me broke and I struggled to exit the car, realizing with embarrassment that I hadn't even unbuckled my seatbelt. The volume of Edward's voice had been steadily rising, and his final words must have brought the struggle to the attention of everyone in the house. As Irina struggled to find a response, Jasper and Emmett appeared on the porch. They paused to assess the situation, and the blind confusion that adorned both faces was almost comical.

"Listen to me, Edward…" Irina began, but before she could continue, Rosalie and Carlisle appeared beside the two brothers on the porch and everything was a sudden blur of impossibly fast action. Before I even had time to flick the button that would release my seatbelt, Irina and Edward had disappeared, surrounded by five new bodies.

Alice vanished silently from behind me and appeared as one of the crowd on the other side of the car, but when I tried to move toward the driver's seat to see what was happening, a pair of cold hands closed on my arm and began pulling me clear of the car. I looked back to find Esme, her face uneasy as she pushed herself between me and what threatened to become and all out brawl. I hadn't even seen her come out. How had the night taken such a violent turn so quickly?

As I struggled in vain to get closer, I felt a wave of calm wash over me. It had exactly the same effect as a bucketful of cold water would have had on a human argument. The tension appeared to drain out of everyone in the tiny group, and though I still could not see Edward or Irina, I felt instantly relieved. Carlisle's voice sounded from the center of the group.

"Edward. Irina. Explain this."

His tone was unassuming and objective, and yet there was an immediate reaction from everyone around him. The others backed away, and I could see Edward once again through the windows on the other side of the car. He had released Irina, but his expression had not changed. His eyes flickered to me through the car windshield, and I saw both relief and reluctance flash across them before he turned back to Carlisle.

"She's been violating the treaty," he began, his eyes falling to the ground. I was suddenly convinced that this was an effort not to meet _my_ eyes. His face was a grimace of disgust as he continued. "She's been in the houses of every wolf and every member of their family. I saw her watching them as they slept."

Esme inhaled sharply at my side. An icy shiver ran down my spine and into all of my extremities as Carlisle, his face now a shade whiter as well, turned to a stiff-jawed Irina.

"Is this true?" His voice was arbitrary, but I could sense a tension there, held under control by centuries of practice.

Irina nodded slowly. "Carlisle, I had no intention of harming any of them. I only wanted to see for myself why their scent is so different from their Old World ancestors."

My eyes flickered cautiously to Edward. Carlisle was unreadable as he turned to Tanya.

"Did you have any part in this?"

Tanya's mouth opened, but no sound came out as she stared at her sister in wide-eyed disbelief. Edward answered for her. "Irina's been watching them the entire time and hiding it from all of us—even Tanya. She knows their houses inside and out. When Billy called Bella, I caught a glimpse of the Black living room in her thoughts, and…"

He detained himself there, glancing over at me with a clenched jaw and I wasn't sure if he had edited the story because of me or because the anger that appeared in his face at that moment had restricted his speech. Images appeared of Irina, pale and ghostlike, lurking at the foot of Seth's bed…in Jacob's living room, or worse, hiding in the shadows of little Claire's closet as she slept, and my mind wandered to Edward's response only seconds before Jasper and Emmett had come out to see what was wrong.

_Is Bella an animal? Is her father? _

My blood ran cold and my heartbeat picked up. From his position yards away from me, Edward noticed the change and his eyes locked with mine, his face a mask of regret that gave everything away. In the sudden scuffle, I had barely even noticed Edward's mention of my father, and it had been instantly discarded with the discovery of a treaty violation, but it dawned on me now that the reason that he would react so fiercely against one of his own family members would not be out of fear for the wolf pack. The only reason that he would have turned so quickly on Irina was if he thought that I was in danger…or in danger of losing someone I loved.

"She's been in my house, hasn't she?" The question came in a whisper.

Edward nodded slowly without breaking his gaze. The others looked around at me expectantly. Irina stared off into the distance defiantly.

"While you were hunting?"

He nodded again. I tensed and glared back. They were supposed to have been hunting together. How had she gotten away from him for that long? And why hadn't he told me? Esme's grip tightened slightly on my upper arm. My next question came in a weak croak.

"She was watching Charlie and me? While we slept?"

Edward breathed deeply in an effort to control his anger as a third nod of the head confirmed what it physically pained him to admit—that Irina had managed to get past him and threaten what he loved.

Anger tore through me then, raw and burning in my chest and I leapt forward toward the deathly still blond vampire without a logic thought in my mind. She had been in my father's bedroom. After all that the Cullens and the wolves had gone through to protect me and my father from harm over the past year, it was Irina—Edward's family…_my_ family now—that suddenly posed the greatest threat.

I wasn't sure what I would have done if Esme's steady hands hadn't been there to hold me back—leapt over the car at Irina perhaps? How many times could she have run circles around me before my mortal legs had managed to carry me those five yards? Instead, I resigned myself to yelling at her from my mother-in-law's constraining arms.

"Why Charlie?" I bellowed, trying to make myself sound as threatening as possible and failing miserably. "He's not a wolf! He doesn't even know what you are! _Why him_?"

Irina remained silent and unmoving, but her gaze was directed at me now, her expression one of utter incredulity.

Edward was at my side in a moment, restraining me as my struggling became half-hearted and whispering apologies into my hair. I allowed myself to fold into his arms, but my eyes were still fixed furiously on Irina. A wave of calm shot over me then, stealing the last of my desire to attack, and I glanced appreciatively at Jasper. Everyone was suddenly focused on me with expressions that ranged from disbelief to amusement, probably wondering if they had really just seen a human try to attack a vampire. It was Carlisle who broke the spell.

"This situation would be better dealt with indoors," he insisted, turning away from Irina for the first time. "Edward, you should take Bella home. We can't afford to have any more tempers flaring tonight—mortal or immortal."

Edward nodded and started toward the car again with one last malicious glance toward his cousin.


	11. Subterfuge

**Mil apologies for the months and months of waiting that came with this one. The semester, of course, killed me slowly, but my greatest excuse is the couple months of surgery and recovery that I had to go through after breaking both my wrists in a rock climbing accident. Yes...not immortal after all. Damn. **

**To all who are still reading...thanks so much for your patience. And a special thanks to Photogal, whose last couple of reviews got my off of my pity pot and back to writing...albeit only fifteen minutes at a time, but writing!**

**As usual, my awesome and (now I can say for absolute certain) patient-as-heck betas, giselle and Rowan Moon deserve a LOT of love. They made getting back to it a little bit easier. Thanks guys. **

* * *

After several futile attempts on my part to stay and take part in the decisions that were about to be made without me—not the proudest of which was actually pleading with Carlisle to absolutely no avail—the ride from Edward's house to mine was passed in a furious, tension filled silence. Edward kept his focus on the road, his hands unmerciful on the steering wheel and his foot trembling as if it was only sheer will that was stopping him from pushing the accelerator through the bottom of the car. I followed his example, and maintained radio silence, keeping my attention fixed as firmly as possible on the faint green glow of the dashboard clock as the seconds ticked by. They seemed to pass much slower than usual, but I did not look away. I didn't want to know the speeds that we had reached as we raced around the curves that led to my home.

I'd been hoping that my continued silence would spark his curiosity, as it had so many times before, and force him into speech at some point along the way, but he didn't say a word, or even move more than absolutely necessary, until he had pulled into my driveway. The cruiser was blessedly absent. Charlie was still on his way home from Billy's.

"I have to go back," he said then, and his voice was as cold as stone. He was staring out the window, avoiding my eyes, but his expression held a regret and surrender that took away some of the bitterness brewing inside me.

"I have as much right to be there as you do."

It came out with more hostility than I had intended. Edward flinched.

"You do," he agreed. "But I'm asking you to stay here."

And for the first time since I'd know him, I recognized a request and not an order. His face in the moonlight was a reflection of only the deepest concern as he contemplated the wind through the line of trees that served as Charlie's back yard fence. He looked almost horrified. I hesitated, not knowing exactly how to respond.

"Why should I stay?" I insisted finally, sensing that the sudden change may just be a chink in Edward's usually impenetrable willpower and intending to take full advantage of any momentary weakness. "I already know what she's been doing, so what is the point of hiding me away now?"

His face melted further into despair and his eyes sank to the steering wheel. "You didn't see what I saw inside her head, Bella. She's not…" he countered and then stopped himself. A shiver ran down his spine—a simple movement that somehow frightened me more than anything else had tonight. Vampires didn't shiver.

"You saw more than you told me," I guessed and my heart sank into my stomach. I already knew the answer. Of course he had. He never told me everything.

Edward sighed. "I saw indecision." The statement seemed to terrify him. "I saw Irina weighing her options."

His response was too puzzling to clarify anything…or to bring my heart rate down to normal speed. "What options?"

"She's not thinking clearly," he responded cryptically. His eyes shifted slowly—finally—to me, and his hand appeared protectively on my knee. "There is something affecting her perception of you…of all of us at this moment, and I need the chance to speak with her—alone." He unbuckled my seatbelt without taking his eyes from mine. I watched the conflict rage inside them. "It's the only way I can see to resolve her indecision favorably."

"What will she do if you can't convince her?" I asked in a hesitant whisper.

The silence that followed gave me my answer. He didn't know. He had seen the possibilities painted there in Irina's mind in all of their detrimental glory, but he couldn't tell me which path she would take. He couldn't see the future. That was Alice's job, and Alice was as blind as him when it came to Irina. I sighed miserably. Edward's gaze had become piercing, as if he were searching for an answer to a question that I didn't have. He was waiting for permission.

"Go," I murmured, turning resignedly to open the passenger door. Edward was already there. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me as I exited the car—the kind of kiss that took my breath away and frightened me at the same time...a desperate kiss that told me he didn't know what was about to happen.

"Charlie's about two minutes away," he warned. "Seth, Quil, and Embry are following close behind. You'll be safe with the wolves while I'm gone."

He brought his hand to my face and traced the tense line of my lips with one cool finger.

"When I return, you'll know every word that was said and every decision that was made in your absence," he pledged. I stared at him dubiously. That would be a first. "In the meantime, please keep your cell phone with you at all times. Call if you feel the slightest bit threatened."

I blushed.

"I don't have my phone ," I admitted, pulling away embarrassed. "I threw it at Irina when you were pushing me into the car."

Technically, the phone had already been broken. Esme had accidentally crushed it as she had grabbed my jacket to hold me back the first time I had jumped at Irina, but it had served its final purpose as an anti-vampire weapon just as well. The tension in Edward's brow seemed to part slightly and I recognized his character smirk for only half a second before he pulled me toward him once again.

"You truly don't want to live until January" he said, and then let out a repentant sigh. I felt him slip his own cell phone in the pocket of my jacket. "Call Alice if you need me."

He walked me to the door and lingered there in thought for a moment before pressing his lips one last time to my forehead.

"Bella, it would be best if you didn't say anything to the wolves just yet," he whispered. "You know how fragile of ground we walk on even without the constant violations. Let me talk to Irina first, please."

His eyes fell to mine for confirmation. They held me transfixed until the closing door broke our contact. I sprinted to the front window to watch him go, but by the time I arrived, he was long gone.

With a sigh, I settled into the armchair in the living room to process what I had only had the opportunity to react to. Edward had seen a decision being made based on Irina's secret observations of the wolves...and of Charlie. I shivered and tried to reason out what decision could possibly make Edward so worried.

_There's something affecting her perception of you_.

Was her decision about me? Had she been deciding whether to kill me or not? That would certainly have put Edward on edge. In fact, it would have driven him right over it. He wouldn't have stopped at threats if that thought had passed through her mind.

…_of all of us…_

Had Irina turned against her own family? I couldn't imagine Tanya supporting her if it came to that. Come to think of it, if it had already come to that, I couldn't imagine anything that Edward could possibly say to her to change her mind. A wave of guilt washed over me. Once again, I was the cause of all of this. In my stubborn insistence on healing the rift between wolves and vampires, I had inadvertently caused a family feud. Edward was right. I was chaos in human form. Give me a mythology book, and I could probably cause a second clash of the Titans as well.

The creak of the front door made me jump.

"Bella?"

It was Charlie. I hadn't heard him pull in.

"Yeah dad. In here."

"What are you doing in the dark?" he asked, and I realized for the first time that I had not turned on any lights. Hanging out with creatures of the night had been taking its toll on me. I flicked on the nearest lamp.

"Sorry…headache," I explained lamely, "You know. Shopping all day." I slipped off my jacket, and made my way to the hallway coat rack. Charlie was just hanging his gunbelt. He had taken to wearing it more places since he'd discovered the existence of werewolves just down the street. I wouldn't have been surprised to find out that he'd inquired about silver bullets at the station too…just in case. I placed the jacket over the belt with a small smile. Bullets—even silver ones—were no longer a valid option for any of the possible home invasions in my life.

"How was Seattle?" he asked, accepting my excuse, but still scanning the living room suspiciously as he made his way toward the television.

"Mind-altering" I said, my voice heavy with forced sarcasm.

Charlie snorted. "You sure gave Billy a scare on the phone. I almost had a pair of bodyguards forced on me when I left."

_Almost_. I didn't believe that for a second. Neither Billy nor Sam were known to be conservative when it came to their immortal neighbors. My eyes wandered toward the window where I was almost certain that I saw at least two shadows patrolling the tree line. I shook my head trying to think of what I was going to tell them.

"Is there some trouble already brewing with the in-laws?" Charlie prompted. There was too much hope in his voice as he said it. I forced myself to keep my expression pleasant as I shifted my gaze back to him.

"Nope. You just called as we were saying goodbye. His cousins had to leave early."

This lying was getting easier every day. By the time I finally had to cover up cold skin and blood red eyes, I'd be an expert.

Judgment ghosted momentarily across Charlie's features before he strode off into the kitchen for a snack. We sat for a while in the living room, watching an episode of a program that I would definitely had to have been watching from the beginning to understand. I told Charlie what I'd bought, or rather what Alice had bought for me, and Charlie grunted his approval and disapproval in all the right places. After about twenty minutes of imagining wolves at my doorstep, I could take no more. At least I wouldn't have to mask my worry if I was alone in my bedroom.

"Hey dad, this headache isn't going away," I began. "I think I'm just going to go up to bed."

I hoped that the wolves had seen that I was unharmed and had reported back to Sam already. It was a weak hope.

"All right," Charlie conceded. "But save some time tomorrow. It's your last full day here and I want to take you and Edward out for dinner."

"No problem," I replied as I climbed the stairs. I let the door to my room close heavily behind me and went straight for the window. A rush of cool night air gusted over me as I stuck my head out into the night. Sure enough, three pairs of enormous eyes were staring up at me from the tree line. As they moved toward me, focused on the square of yellow light from my window, the silhouettes of three enormous bodies came into view. I waved at them as nonchalantly as possible. It dawned on me then that this would be a scene out of any normal human teenager's worst nightmare.

"You didn't have to come. I'm fine," I whispered into the darkness. "Go back and tell Billy he's a paranoid old man." I was hoping that the quiver I heard in my own voice didn't carry down to them. I didn't know if I was ready to hide something as big as a possible rogue vampire in-law from them just yet, but below me, the three figures weren't buying it. I watched as one of them disappeared again into the tree line and reappeared as Seth, shirtless, almost as white as Edward in the moonlight.

"You don't get off that easily," he insisted, crushing whatever hope I'd have of avoiding an inquiry tonight. "I'm coming up to get you."

And in one inhuman spring, he was perched carelessly on my windowsill with his arms held out to carry me down. I backed away.

"I promised Edward I'd stay inside." The thought of jumping out of my second story window with someone other than Edward wasn't exactly thrilling.

"Why? I thought you said there was nothing to worry about." Seth smirked victoriously, and I suddenly felt like a child who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"There isn't," I insisted quickly, but my blush gave me away. Seth smiled, and pulled me into his arms.

"Jacob's right, Bella," he said as I squeezed my eyes closed against the sudden rush of cool night air. "You really suck at lying."

I recognized the two solemn sentries that appeared in wolf form at his side as Quil and Embry. The subtle dark spots that lined Embry's grey coat were made more prominent in the yellow glow of the porch light. They observed with anxious eyes and lolling tongues, as Seth set me down on the grass and motioned toward a less conspicuous spot just past the edge of the yard. I followed with a sigh.

"Tell us what happened," Seth ordered as soon as he seemed satisfied with the tree cover.

"There's nothing to tell," I insisted lamely. "Edward's cousins just decided to catch an earlier flight." But my gaze lingered a little too long on Quil's dark brown frame. I wondered exactly how long it would take him to wolf it to Edward's house if he knew that one of his mortal enemies had been watching baby Claire in her crib.

After a long moment, Seth seemed to find what he was looking for in the guilt that was practically painted on my forehead. His breath came in a long measured sigh before he spoke.

"She got on our side, didn't she? The one without a scent?"

He was good. And I wasn't prepared to deal with good right now. I watched Quil and Embry stir uneasily beside him and realized that there was no way I was going to be able to lie my way through it…not tonight. Not with my own temper still threatening to flare up at any moment, so I did the only thing I could think of to keep the peace until Tanya and Irina were out of the picture—I downplayed. With as many close encounters as I had had in my lifetime…especially recently, I was almost an expert at the art of downplay.

"They're already on their way back," I said with a forced shrug. "It doesn't really matter now."

By the expression that crept onto Seth's face, it most certainly did matter. His response came in a rush of curses and unanswerable questions, accompanied by the growls and grunts of his two suddenly restless companions. "Dammit, Bella! Sam knew this would happen! He told you we wouldn't stand for it!" His hands were clenched into tight fists as he began pacing back and forth between the two wolves. "How many times was she on our land? What the hell was she there for? Wasn't Edward supposed to be watching her the whole time? How could he just let them break the treaty like that?"

I put my hands out to stop the onslaught before it could evolve into a plan of counterattack that seemed inevitably directed at my husband.

"Edward didn't have anything to do with any of this. He just found out tonight. He's there now trying to fix everything."

Seth stared at me with what would have been triumph if it hadn't been twisted with irritation. I blushed as I realized that I'd admitted too much.

"So he'll slap them on the wrist and put them on a plane to Alaska," Seth growled. "What good will that do?"

"And what do you suggest?" I asked him, inexplicably furious—hating this situation, and unable to understand how it was that I was suddenly defending the woman that I'd just physically attacked about an hour ago. "Killing her?"

The shadow that passed over Seth's features then made him look older than his years by at least a decade. His voice was barely audible. "It's instinct, Bella. We're mortal enemies. You can only fight instinct so long."

A chill crept down my spine. This was Seth—not a jealous Jacob or an overly reactive Sam that was throwing threats around, but _Seth_. He'd fought next to Edward to save my life. The next question that came to my lips was frosted with fear.

"Then what does your instinct tell you about Edward?"

The tension in the air was palpable, suppressing even the sounds of the crickets around us as I found myself trying to stare down a nearly seven foot sixteen year old. After a few contemplative seconds, Seth rolled his eyes and grunted.

"Well, apart from the fact that he's an idiot for leaving you here to lie for him, Edward's still cool," he said. "He's always respected the treaty as far as I know. He's not the one we've got to worry about right now."

The two wolves beside him growled their disagreement. I allowed myself a moment of relief. The hairs that had risen on the back of my neck went down temporarily.

"You don't have to worry about any of them," I breathed. "Tanya and Irina are gone now."

Seth was less than satisfied. "Alpha's orders Bella," he said, and then flipped into an impressive impression of their pack leader. "Find out what went wrong no matter how much the leeches try to cover it up." His lips tensed into a stubborn line, and he was suddenly all Seth again. "So…are you going to tell us what happened, or are we going to have to go charging to the source to get that info?"

Another threat in a night full of them. I sighed and wondered how exactly I had so subtly slipped in between the proverbial rock and a hard place. I should probably look into some land there. It seemed like a place I was destined to be for the rest of my life…and probably more. Without much hope, I weighed my new options. I could appease the wolves and tell them only what they had already guessed, which would probably send them on a growling, mouth-foaming charge through the forest toward Edward's house and end in the death of someone I loved. _Rock_. Or I could take Edward's advice and remain silent, which would still send them to his house in search of answers, and still probably end in a flurry of fangs and claws and death. _Hard place_. How did I get myself into these things?

I opened my mouth to respond without any idea of what would be coming out…and that was when Seth disappeared in a rush of fur and teeth as his two wolf sentries pulled instinctively into a protective stance in front of him. I felt cold, hard hands press a little too hard into the muscle of my shoulders. They whipped me around before I even had time to draw breath for a surprised squeak.

Edward, his face frantic, held me at arm's length for a moment before sweeping me into a bone crushing hug. The roots of panic inside me began to wither, but his expression prevented them from dying away completely. The moonlight played with the shadows of his face, making him appear angry…furious even. That emotion melted away into a small relief as he watched the shock disappear from my eyes, but I recognized a new worry that had not been there when he had left me only forty minutes ago. I frowned up at him, speechless, hoping the confusion in my expression was question enough.

"Esme told me…Alice saw your future disappear and I thought…" he broke off and pulled me tighter. I heard something crack in my back, but my voice was still lost. Edward didn't let go. He watched the wolves from over my head with a stony expression. They stared back at him, pulling slowly back again to reveal their still human brother, standing with his eyes closed tightly in concentration and his breath ragged. Seth had managed not to phase, but I didn't miss the shimmer that slid from his chest down through his arms, finally disappearing before he was able to speak again.

"Geez Edward," he scolded in between steadily calmer breaths. "A hundred and some years and you haven't figured out not to sneak up on a werewolf?"

"I'm sorry." I heard Edward whisper as his fingers wound lovingly into my hair. "My mind was on…other things." He trailed off and took me in both of his hands, holding me out by the shoulders like a little girl about to get scolded. "Why didn't you answer the phone?"

My mind slipped back to Edward's cell phone, abandoned in my jacket pocket on the coat rack, and I exhaled heavily, hoping that it had at least been set to vibrate for Charlie's benefit.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to dissimulate as I let his arms tighten around me again. The sweet scent of vegetation still clung to his shirt and mixed enticingly with his own scent, making it hard to worry about anything. I didn't expect any real answers from him until we were clear of the wolves. He had seemed adamant about not letting them know any more than necessary, and so his next question, directed at Quil and Embry, shocked me.

"Are you in communication with Sam at this moment?"

The two wolves grunted an affirmative and sat in unison, facing him almost dutifully. Seth's eyes fixed suspiciously on Edward, but he said nothing. I pulled away and tried to gauge the strange expression on his face. He seemed to be debating whether or not to continue down the path this line of questioning would lead. Finally, with a sigh, he resigned himself to the inevitable.

"I need to speak to him as soon as possible."

Seth nodded. "He can be here in ten minutes."

"Not here," Edward insisted quickly, and I wondered if it was only me who had noticed a flash of worry light his eyes again. "At the border between the two territories."

Seth nodded cautiously. "What's up, Edward?" he asked. "Where are your friends?"

Edward drew an agonizingly slow breath, his eyes slipping to the ground for a long moment before answering, resuming his own internal debate.

"Irina's gone," he said, and the tension in his moonlit features told me that "gone" did not mean "on a plane back to Alaska."

"Gone where?"

"I don't know," he admitted painfully with a deadly glance at the wolves, whose steadily insistent growling were sure to have been broadcasting the same question at him from whatever frequency they operated at. They were looking around into a night that suddenly seemed much more savage than only a few minutes ago. "She was gone before I arrived. Alice and Tanya were searching for her. The rest of them were preparing to leave when I arrived. Jasper told me that Alice…"

He stopped himself with a quick side glance at our three companions, but he had said enough for me to understand. Alice had had a vision. I inhaled sharply, wanting to ask a million questions at once. What had Alice seen? Was that what had driven Irina away? Had Carlisle just let her leave? Did he think that she was headed toward LaPush? But each of my questions would only serve to escalate the situation. As it was, the wolves were already looking on with worried, hungry expressions, hanging on our every movement. I watched in frozen silence instead as Seth faced Edward with a look that had no place on the face of a teenager.

"What does that mean for us?"

There was only a moment's pause as Edward evaluated what the wolves already knew. I expected a complacent grin, followed by a comment that would ease the tension until the meeting with Sam where true situation could be analyzed, but the anxiety in his eyes did not fade. He stared back coldly without an answer. I watched as both wolves bristled in the silence and began to grow restless again. Edward's glance shifted unsteadily from me to them and back again.

"No one in my family _allowed _her to leave," he snarled, reacting to unspoken accusations from one of the wolves. There was an audible growl that was carried away on the chilly night breeze.

"I'm sure that Alice tried to prevent her escape," Edward responded icily, grimacing at whatever thoughts were being flung at him from three different directions. "My sister is not infallible. Irina's reactions are as unpredictable to her as those of your pack." There was something in his expression. Something he was hiding. I gazed longingly up at the square of yellow light in the distance that marked my bedroom window and my key to full disclosure as Edward answered again.

"I cannot discard that, unfortunately," he replied, his voice weighted with regret. "That's why I need to speak with Sam directly…now." He paused and fixed Quil with a lethal glare. "In the meantime, any thoughts that would take you down _that_ path of action would be extremely unwise. Irina remains a part of our family, and we will act accordingly if she is harmed outside of Quileute land."

I grimaced, knowing full well what _that_ path of action was. I was surprised that it had taken only minutes for Quil and Embry to arrive there. Edward looked every bit the immortal assassin that he was as his glare slid threateningly from wolf to wolf to boy. Then he stepped back and resumed a businesslike stance that was marred only by the one cold hand that refused to let mine go. "But I would be greatly in your debt if you would attempt nothing more than defense if she is discovered on your land as well. She's…conflicted at the moment."

Seth glowered. "Conflicted," he repeated in a sardonic tone. "I still can't get the taste of the last vampire you described as conflicted…or her little sidekick…out of my mouth." His lips curled into a sour expression as if to confirm this.

Edward opened his mouth to respond and then froze suddenly. The words fell away and his eyes closed slowly in anguish. A curse, almost too low for me to hear, left his lips, and suddenly there were only four of us again in the tiny clearing. I looked around, straining my eyes to see into the darkness beyond the tree line, but Edward had disappeared.

"What the hell just happened?" Seth.

"I don't know," I confessed, feeling a draft from the negative space where my husband had been seconds ago. My mind was rapidly forming a hypothesis, and it wasn't one I would admit to my furred escorts. Only one thing would have caused Edward to run off in the middle of such a loaded conversation—only one scentless, soundless…but not thoughtless thing.

"Bella, how bad is this?" Seth persevered, eyes still focused off to his left—no doubt in the direction that he had seen Edward go. I stared at him, dumbfounded. An hour ago, the worst thing in existence had been a looming semester at Dartmouth. Forty five minutes ago, it had been a possibly war-inducing treaty violation. Now I had no idea what was happening, but the little voice inside my head that told me that it couldn't get much worse had been successfully suffocated. Things could always get worse.

The look on my face was answer enough for Seth. He sighed heavily and stamped his foot like an impatient child. "You know, Edward doesn't realize how lucky he is that Sam's still the leader. At least he's got a little self control. You just wait until Jacob gets back. It'll be open season on any leeches that come onto our land, no questions asked."

"Seth!"

Since the first night that I had learned of Seth's admittance into the LaPush pack, I could not remember any other time where he had referred to his unusual neighbors as anything more derogatory than "vampire." What depths was this night dragging us to?

The rest of my impending admonishment was lost as Edward reappeared at my side, leaving only the slightest trace of a breeze behind him that ruffled the fur on both wolves as he rushed past them. He was livid and paler than I had ever seen him, his eyes a flaming gold against his complexion. They seemed to be darkening even as I searched them for answers. They darted dangerously from the wolves to the forest and back to me with unnatural speed, but his eyes weren't what prevented the torrent of questions that I had for him.

Edward's shirt, flawlessly laundered and ironed before he'd left us, was now torn in two places and stained from the vegetation in several others. As I watched, he pulled a pine needle from his hair almost absentmindedly. He had stalked and killed mountain lions before, drained them dry without even a wrinkle in the overpriced brand name apparel that his sister bought for him regularly…and Edward was never absentminded. Never.

"Edward, what's going on," I asked. "What happened to your shirt?"

The wolves pulled in closer, drawing their own conclusions and trying to pick up a scent on his clothing. Edward reached for my hand again like a drowning man in search of a lifeline.

"The situation is…much more advanced," he began as if he hadn't even heard my question. He was shaking again, not from the cold, of course, but from something else I couldn't understand as he turned to the two wolves. "Is Sam with Billy right now?"

The thinner one, Embry, gave a quick nod.

"Good. Tell him that Charlie and Bella will be accompanying you back in the Guardian. I have to speak to Alice."

My breath caught. Everyone's did. For a moment, no one moved, all wondering what Edward had seen in the woods that would warrant such extreme measures. Seth was the first to recover his voice. "It's almost one in the morning! Charlie's not going to want to…"

"Convince him." Emotionless. An order spoken to a soldier.

It was then that I began to recognize the expression on his face. It was more than just worry. I had seen this expression not long ago in a frozen clearing just before Victoria had appeared, pale and vengeful, from the trees. It was desperate, furious, and dutiful at the same time. It was Edward, the protector. My mind hit overload then, blocking any reaction that I could possibly have had as the pieces fell into place. Alice's vision had been about me…and Charlie.

Seth stepped forward, frustrated. The wolves were close behind him. "What was in the woods, Edward?"

Edward's whole body stiffened. His hand tightened around mine and I realized that this was a question that I already knew the answer to.

"It was her, wasn't it?"

He nodded, every muscle in his body on edge. A series of snarls rang through the clearing and Edward stepped fluidly in between me and the wolves. Quil disappeared in the direction that Edward had just come from. Embry moved to protect Seth, who was, amazingly enough, still in human form. I marveled at his self control. At that very moment, my blood seemed to be freezing and boiling at the same time. If I had been a wolf, I probably would have been right behind Quil.

"She's gone," Edward called into the stillness of the tree line, and then to the three of us, frantic. "This is all out of control. I have to find Alice. I need my phone." He started toward the house, dragging me behind him too quickly.

"Why? Where did Irina go?" I asked, stumbling on a fallen branch. He caught me and pulled me into his arms without stopping.

"I don't know."

"You let her get away?" Seth's voice, following now, was heavy with condemnation.

Edward paused, glaring back.

"How far away is Jacob?"

Seth recoiled, blinking. This was the last question he had expected. "He's not far. Somewhere around Vancouver the last time I checked on him. He didn't want to get too far with your two friends running around." His next statement was more bitter than cautious. "I guess I see why now."

There was a moment of silence, Edward seemingly reluctant to put his next thought into words. His eyes met mine as he spoke it.

"He needs to be here. Tell him that Bella is in danger. He'll come then." His eyes were bright with the pain of that truth.

My heart skipped a beat—three or four beats—as I tried to decipher the lines in his impossibly smooth face. What had happened? What could be so dangerous, so imminent, that he would feel the need to wake Charlie in the middle of the night, or worse…to call Jacob back?

"Is she?" Seth's voice. Troubled, older. His eyes sparkling with alarm. "Is she in danger?"

Edward's eyes were fixed only on me as he answered, filled with a century worth of remorse, and so he did not see the shimmer that began in Seth's shoulders and twisted in his neck before rippling down his chest and seeming to exit through his clenched fists at Edward's response.

"We all are."

In the distance, from the direction of LaPush, a series of howls were barely audible in the cool night air.

_Up Next: Wolf Watch_


	12. Wolf Watch

**OK, it's been a year in coming barring broken limbs, graduations, job changes, and massive moves. I apologize profusely to anyone who may still be reading, and I do solomnly swear that I am at LEAST three chapters ahead, and will not be making you wait more than two week for the remaining chapters.**

**Sorry! Sorry! But please enjoy!**

* * *

The tension in the air seemed to resonate off of every surface, magnifying even the most minute sounds ten-fold. The clock on Billy's living room wall had become my particular bane of the moment. Its incessant ticking burned into my head and mocked my garbled sense of time second by grating second. Each tick seemed like one eternity after another to me. I gave it my most scathing glare before turning back to Billy, who was silhouetted against the front window, staring absently into the night. The darkness obscured his face, but I could imagine the concern that would already be well hidden behind the cold mask of authority he wore in times like these—a mask he'd had to wear too many times since I'd moved to Forks.

An echo of something shattering in the kitchen blotted out one of the clock's rhythmic ticks, followed by a low curse that blocked out the tock as well.

"Sorry Billy," Quil called from the direction of the clamor. Billy snorted, but his attention remained fixed on the tree line shrouded in mist just past the porch. There was none of his normal soothing humor in his reaction. There had, in fact, been no humor at all from any of the wolves since I'd arrived on the reservation less than twenty minutes before—only a series of interrogatory stares and crisp, almost businesslike motions, as if every member of the pack were waiting for the call to arms. Now that I thought about it, that was probably exactly what they were doing—preparing themselves for battle…again. And I was left to plant myself on Billy's couch in front of a television that no one was watching, count the slow, loud seconds, and pretend that I didn't know exactly how wasted all of their efforts were.

"You want something to eat, Bella?" Quil called from the kitchen as the thin red second hand passed the six and began its trek upward toward the end of another minute.

"No thanks." My reply was mechanical. Who could be hungry at one forty-eight in the morning?

"Bring me one of whatever you're making!" Leah.

She was curled into one of the uncomfortable tan loveseats in the corner of the room, occasionally fixing me with the kind of glare that seemed like it should burn away the flesh from my face. It was one of those napalm glances that she graced me with now as she waited for Quil's culinary experiment. I stared back at her vacantly and listened to another minute pass by, wondering if Edward had found Alice by now. Wondering if either of them had found their prodigal cousin. I'd received no official news since I'd left Edward at the border.

Quil ambled out of the kitchen carrying two sandwiches, each roughly the size of a dinner plate. He passed one to Leah and I turned away in disgust, trying to pretend that it was nothing more than the late hour that had stolen my appetite. That was easier said than done. The truth of the matter was that hunger had ceased to be an issue for me exactly fifty six minutes ago. That was when Edward had sent his fist flying through his brand new car stereo. That was when his eternally exasperating wall of silence had finally crumbled, and that was where my mind wandered now—for the fourth time in the last twenty-two minutes—as I waited for the call that would confirm Irina's decision and the chilling vision that Edward had not wanted me to know.

_All of the anger and frustration that had been steadily building inside me since our hurried journey from the meeting in the woods to my bedroom and back into Edward's car had vanished as I stared, paralyzed, at the small black hole that had only moments ago been an unobtrusive digital reminder that the car stereo was in USB mode. Edward's wide, dark eyes reflected his own utter surprise as they shifted unbelievingly from the hole to his own undamaged hand, the shock of his actions painted into his very stillness. He drew a breath to speak—no doubt to apologize—but no words seemed to come to him. The night around us was tinged an alternating blue-green and black as the clock just above the jagged hole blinked an almost angry 12:00 back at us both. His mouth fell closed again and he picked up his cell phone, dialing Alice's number almost absentmindedly. _

"_Edward," I began with much more trepidation than I had originally intended as 12:00 turned to 12:01 on the demolished dashboard. "What's going on?" _

_His response was a low curse as he'd pressed the cancel button on his cell phone. It had been the fourth time since we'd left my house that he'd tried to call his sister. There had been three missed calls from her when he'd retrieved the phone from my jacket pocket, but when he'd tried to return those calls all he got was the autonomous tones of the voicemail operator telling him to leave a message. He'd left none. None of the Cullens ever left messages. They were too well versed in the art of leaving no trace._

"_What did Alice see?" _

_Edward shook his head in frustration. "I don't know." _

"_Yes you do."_

"_No, I don't, Bella!" he snapped. His hand curled too tightly around the steering wheel and his eyes blazed a sudden, dangerous black, directed at me. I shrunk back in my seat, somehow fascinated and terrified at the same time, unable to look away from him. A simple unanswered cell phone had caused him to destroy his own car stereo. I was sure that I didn't want to push his limits any further tonight. _

_Regret appeared in his eyes then, and his hand relaxed, moving to a much less threatening position on my lower thigh. His next words were calmer, but still laced with deep frustration. "Alice had already left by the time I returned to the house. I couldn't speak with her. I couldn't confirm her premonition."_

"_But you said she was there. You said she saw my future disappear."_

"_Esme told me that Alice's visions of you had vanished just before she and Jasper joined the search," he explained. "When I saw Alice's face in Esme's memory…" _

_He trailed off and the cell phone appeared in his hand again. Before I was able fire off another question from my endless repertoire, he was dialing Jasper's number. Frustrated beyond the limits of my common sense, I shot my arm out, reaching for the phone in a vain attempt to pull it from his grasp. He moved easily out of my reach and watched with what was almost amused incredulity as I settled back, unsatisfied and scowling at him from the passenger seat._

"_I'm curious," he mused, pressing the cancel button yet again. Jasper wasn't picking up either. "Were you really hoping to catch me off my guard?" _

_Maybe it was his mocking tone coupled with the tension of Irina's betrayal, or maybe it was simply the fact that it was one in the morning and there was no promise of sleep in sight. Whatever it was, the floodgates opened at that point, and my words came out in one rushed furious breath. "Edward, you're driving me crazy! You appear out of nowhere telling us that your wolf-hating, treaty-breaking cousin is gone, and then you reappear after you'd obviously been in a fight telling us that we're all in danger and we've got to wake up Charlie and call back Jacob. But do I get a decent explanation about why I'm scaring the crap out of my father in the middle of the night? Do I get to know why I'm stuck with the wolves until God-knows-when? No! I get one obscure response after another!" _

_My hands were curled into fists and my ears were burning. I didn't even want to imagine the shade of red that I'd turned. Instead, I drew a long breath and stared ahead at the double yellow line disappearing into the darkness beyond the reach of the headlights. _

"_Not that I should be surprised," I continued after moment. "Life with you has been one giant lack of communication right from the beginning and I've just stood around and taken it. But you promised this time!"_

_On the edge of my vision, Edward was motionless and silent, frowning at me without even a glance at the road ahead._

"_You're right," he whispered. "I'm sorry." The statement was sincere, but he offered nothing more. I persisted, gentler. _

"_What happened in the woods just now?" Hadn't that been the turning point anyway? Until his sudden reappearance in the woods outside my house, hadn't he been convinced that everything could end without conflict?_

_Edward sighed and turned to stare sullenly out at the passing trees. "Irina was there," he admitted. "She'd already overheard Alice's…" He trailed off bitterly, not quite ready to tell me about Alice's part in the tale. "She'd come to try to reason with me. She knew that I would gravitate toward you. I always do…and so she came to the forest near your house. She was listening to your conversation with Seth." His voice took on a darker tone. "She heard his mention of what would happen after Jacob's arrival."_

_I struggled to remember Seth's words, and then cringed._

_It'll be open season on any leeches that come onto our land, no questions asked. _

_Edward's voice was as rancorous as his expression. "I saw a decision form in Irina's mind then—saw that there was no way to convince her otherwise after that, and so I made an impromptu attempt to subdue her…and that's when she unleashed Alice's full vision on me." He flinched and was very still for a moment. "Irina knows very well how to use her mind as a weapon against me. She's had a lot of time to practice." _

"_But what was the vision?" I pushed. "And how did Irina know about it if Alice hadn't found her yet to tell her?"_

_There was a long pause as he drew a breath through tense, nearly white lips. "Irina listens. That's what she uses her talent for. It's the reason that she and her sisters have survived so long without…well…someone like Alice to warn them or me to read suspicions." His tone was almost defensive, as if he was trying to justify her behavior. I sighed, not sure whether to be frustrated or impressed. After all of the trouble that Irina had caused…continued to cause…he was still trying to justify her actions. I supposed that was to be expected. Edward was nothing if not unquestioningly loyal to his family. _

"_And she was listening when Alice had the vision?" I prompted. The trees were becoming thicker as the town disappeared behind us. I guessed that my window of opportunity was limited to no more than five more minutes before we reached the border._

_Edward shook his head. "She was listening to Alice and Jasper as they tried to track her." I watched as the hand that rested on my leg grew tense. "She'd seen Jasper trying to comfort Alice after the fact, and she'd heard Alice telling him about it."_

"_And what was she saying?" It came out in a cracked whisper. When it came down to it, I wasn't sure why exactly I wanted to hear it. Really, how many more visions of destruction could I take before they began to affect me like they should? How many before one of them came true? _

_Edward's frown deepened and he appeared to concentrate once again on the road ahead. "Bella, what I saw was the memory of a memory being replayed inside the mind of a woman whose thoughts have been temporarily marred by extreme prejudice. Irina has been weighing several options. Alice was only conveying one of those. She had to have seen the possible outcomes for more than only that specific one. That's why it's imperative that I talk with…" _

"_But Alice doesn't see the details unless a decision has been made." The sense of urgency in my voice created a much more aggressive tone than I intended, but the border was no more than two minutes away now. He was stalling. He knew that if we got to the wolves before he could tell me what Alice had seen, I wouldn't pursue the matter further. He knew I would not risk a starting another conflict for a piece of information, no matter how vital it was. _

"_What was the decision? What did Alice see?" _

_Edward fixed the road outside with a death glare._

"_She saw a problem with the wolves."_

_I frowned, confused. "Alice can't see the wolves." _

_His next movements were filled with an unwillingness that I had never seen in him before and his next words were almost inaudible. _

"_Not when they're alive."_

_My breath caught, and suddenly I understood Edward's reaction completely…was, in fact, fighting with the same panic that I had seen making random appearances on his face all night. It felt like I was drowning in the air around me. _

"_All of them?" I choked, unable to think of anything more coherent at the moment._

"_I haven't seen the vision, Bella."_

"_Sam? Seth?" I shifted in my seat, trying to meet his eyes, but he was faster and much more experienced at avoiding mine. _

"_I don't know." _

"_Jacob?" I felt the adrenaline threaten to explode inside me at just the thought. Edward's jaw clenched._

"_I need to talk to Alice." Stalling again. Avoiding the answer._

"_Please, just tell me." I insisted. "Does Jake die?" _

_Surely Edward wouldn't have called Jacob back if he'd known that he was summoning him to a death sentence, would he?_

"_Yes." _

_One cold syllable, hissed through clenched teeth as his hand fastened on my arm as if to stop me from leaping out of the car. I felt the chill it brought through the sleeve of my cotton shirt. It seemed to creep through my shoulder and into my spine. It had to have been all of them. Every wolf. I knew it just as much as Edward did. If even one of them was left alive, Alice wouldn't be able to see them. They were linked in life…and death. _

_His hands were still white, trembling again. I didn't like that trembling. It didn't belong to Edward…not the untouchable, immortal Edward I knew. There had to be more to the vision. More he wasn't telling me. Then it hit me. _

_We are all in danger tonight._

_Of course it wasn't just the wolves. Seth and Embry wouldn't be in my house at this very moment waking up the chief of police if it had only been the wolves. Edward would have wanted them as far away from me and mine as possible if that were the case. A series of shivers hit me like waves against a rocky shoreline. Edward's hand tightened on my shoulder and he looked over, concern wearing through his firm resolve. Something in my face must have worried him further. For the first time, the speedometer began to edge slowly down toward the speed limit._

"_Bella?" _

"_I die too." It didn't need to be a question. "And Charlie." _

_A moment's hesitation was all I needed—just enough for one small, shaky exhale of cool, sweet breath. Just enough for Edward the Protector to make one fleeting appearance and betray him. It was the part of his personality that he was not yet used to hiding…the part that he had only recently discovered. It told me exactly how much I'd improved at reading his silences. _

"_When?"_

"_It won't happen, Bella. I won't allow it."_

"_Where then?"_

_His eyes flickered to the rear view mirror. The only sound was the engine pushing back up to unsafe speeds but a response was no longer necessary. I remembered his adverse reaction in the woods when Seth had suggested that Sam meet them there._

"_It's at my house." Another question answered on my own. Edward gave a grimace of disgust._

"_Around your house, yes."_

_All around it-a battlefield then, full of dead bodies, dead wolves, and…_

"_Are you there too?" _

_Another hesitant glance in my direction. "Bella, I need to talk to…"_

"_Do you die!"_

"_We all die." His voice was too calm as his confession confirmed all of my worst fears. "Alice told Jasper we all die."_

_He pulled out his phone again and started to dial._

"Your dad's here."

Billy's voice broke through my trance. I shivered as Quil joined him at the window and let out a short barking laugh.

"Man, he looks pissed!"

"It's almost two in the morning," Leah said, straining to see the three new arrivals without having to surrender her position of semi-comfort. "Wouldn't you be a little peeved?"

I shook my head to clear away Edward's last words and rose to join the boys at the window just in time to see Embry, already in wolf form, disappearing into the trees—joining his brothers on patrol duty. A second pair of lupine eyes reflected the porch light in the distance, and I thought I saw a third dark body moving away with them into the night, too quickly and gracefully to be anything but supernatural. Seth killed the Guardian's engine and Charlie stepped out of the passenger side looking every bit as angry as Quil had warned. He followed Embry's progress until he lost all three wolves in the woods. I watched as a shiver passed over him We were surrounded, obviously, and that fact did not bring him nearly as much comfort as it should have—as it would have brought me if I had not known the fate that each and every one of them were headed towards.

Charlie was already yelling before he was even fully inside the house. "Dammit, Billy, what the hell is this? What's my daughter's boyfriend's car doing out here at this time of…"

But that was as far as he got before he saw me standing in the hallway and lost his train of thought. I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to be sound asleep in my bed at home. That particular fact had fallen into the depths of an alternate reality at this point in time…one where vampires and werewolves stayed tucked nicely into Stephen King novels.

"_Husband _dad," I corrected with a slight blush. "You should start getting used to that."

Charlie stood frozen in the open doorway for a long time, gauging the expressions on each new face as if waiting for one of us to suddenly shout "Surprise!" and break out the birthday presents. Finally, his shoulders sagged.

"I suppose there was no actual break-in, then?"

" Nope." Billy's tone hadn't changed.

My father's glare fell accusingly on the youngest werewolf in the pack. Seth shrugged. "How else was I gonna get you out of the house in the middle of the night?" His hand darted out and stole a piece of meat from Quil's half eaten sandwich. "Tell you the truth? You'd have told me to go pee on a tree."

"Well _somebody_ better tell me the truth," Charlie warned, turning expectantly toward me with an angry, sleep deprived cop expression that would have effectively rivaled any police chief cliché in any detective movie ever made. "And I'm thinking that it had better be you doing the telling, Bells."

Every eye fell anxiously on me. Charlie had just effectively put a voice to the desires of everyone in the room. I owed each one of them some form of explanation on any one of thirty different levels, and Charlie was only the next one in a long line to be blown off with a vapid, barely believable excuse. The autopilot that my mind had been running on hit overload, stalled, and then spluttered to a complete halt and I stared back with my mouth half open and not even the slightest idea of what was supposed to be coming out.

"Uh…Alice…" I began, my defenses veering subconsciously toward the truth. Then instinct kicked in—a newly discovered and way too well practiced part of me that began a constant mental slide show of the psych ward I would spend the rest of my waking hours in if full disclosure ever became an issue—and my mind made a 180 degree turn.

"Alice!" This time, my words were tainted with artificial confidence. "She had this feeling that something was going to go wrong tonight." Billy and the wolves leaned in, sensing the proximity to the unspoken truths that they were searching for. They all knew that Alice had seen something. Edward had admitted as much to Sam in their meeting.

"In our house," I added quickly. There was a sigh of frustration from somewhere behind me. "It really freaked me out, and I didn't want you to get hurt so I asked Seth to go get you and make you spend the night here." Seth flinched. It was the worst lie ever and everyone around me knew it. I was ashamed that it had come from my mouth the second I was finished saying it, but considering the alternative—incarceration in a mental institution, or at the very least, a heavy suspicion of hallucinogen abuse—it was the best I could do.

"I know it's late dad. I'm really sorry," I concluded weakly, as if an apology would make any piece of the story more believable.

Charlie stared at me, expressionless and unmoving for a minute, the way that I imagined a detective doing with a suspect in the little room with one mirrored wall. The moment of contemplation was enough to make even Billy shift uncomfortably. After a while, Charlie gave a long, slow sigh and began his inevitable interrogation.

"So why didn't you just wake me up and tell me about it? Last I saw, you were headed for your bedroom with a headache."

Crap. I'd forgotten about that…again.

"Um…Because she was already here," Leah cut in. She took up an uncertain position by my side. From the corner of my eye, I saw Quil slip into her spot in the armchair. "Girl's night out…me, Bella, and Alice." I hoped that Charlie hadn't noticed the amount of work it had taken Leah not to snarl when she said the words _me_ and _Alice_ in the same sentence. "We made her sneak out her window. It's good to sneak out once in a while."

I looked at her in amazed confusion—relatively the same confusion that was all too evident on everyone else's face as well. Leah frowned.

"What?" She threw a nervous shoulder punch at her younger brother, who dodged her easily. "She's going to college in a couple days. A girl's night out is perfectly normal." She glared around the room, daring any one of the boys to challenge her. When no one did, she turned back to Charlie eagerly. "You're not gonna punish her for sneaking out, are you?"

Leah looked like a good old fashioned grounding from Chief Charlie would have been just fine in her book. Charlie looked as if his argument had just flown out the window…on rickety, horribly falsified wings, but gone just the same.

"A hunch?" he repeated.

"Yup."

It was meant to sound confident, but the doubt that was drawn into every one of the wrinkles on Charlie's forehead was not exactly encouraging.

"During a girls' night out with two girls who hate each other?"

My breath caught. I heard Leah's falter as well. We had not counted on Charlie's magic police chief powers. I hadn't realized just how observant of my friends that he'd been in the past few months.

Leah picked up my slack. "Well, it couldn't just be me and Bella. That would have been a little weird. And I don't know any of her hu…uh…high school friends." I grimaced, certain that Leah had almost said the word "human." I didn't think that we could have recovered from that large of a Freudian slip at this point.

"Uh-huh."

Charlie still wasn't buying it, but he was moving cautiously into the living room. That was a good sign. "So where's Alice now?"

_I would give my right arm for that kind of information,_ I thought.

"She went home."

"Without seeing if everything was OK with the house?" Charlie was circling the living room like a crime scene. "That seems pretty strange after such a strong hunch. You'd think she'd stay to see if I was safe."

He was showering me with hard, suspicious cop-glances. I felt like a freshly caught fugitive. "She drove by the house on the way home to see if you were on your way."

"In what car? The Volvo's still in the driveway."

"In mine," Quil interjected, his mouth full of turkey sandwich. "Alice left Bella the Volvo to…"

"Don't bother Quil, I saw the Chevy in your yard driving over."

Quil's mouth snapped closed and the last of his sandwich went down hard. He turned toward me with a shrug of his shoulders and a look that confirmed that I was on my own from here. For my part, I adapted what I could have only imagined was the perfect deer-in-the-headlight eyes as whatever part of my brain that did the lying left the building. No two weeks' notice. No resignation letter. Just one horribly awkward mental void.

"He…I…" I stuttered. Charlie cut me off.

"Does this have something to do with werewolf stuff?"

"No!" I answered too quickly, and then the full power of Charlie's glare fell upon me. "OK, maybe a little."

He let out a knowing half-laugh. "I knew it!" he exclaimed. "You live twenty years in a place not knowing a thing about the werewolves on the reservation, and then the second you find out, that's when the trouble starts."

There was a silence as everyone in the room but Charlie suddenly found a different place to stare at on the floor or ceiling. The movement was so simultaneous it could have been choreographed. Trouble had started long before Charlie got here. Trouble had been brewing on this particular reservation since the Great Depression. Luckily, my father seemed to be too busy contemplating something outside the window to notice the sudden mood change.

"Did Alice really have a hunch?"

I sighed miserably. "Yeah, she did." If he only knew exactly how big of one.

"Is anyone going to get hurt?"

Six heads turned toward Charlie, stunned. Was he about to take Alice's hunch seriously? Most of the wolves couldn't admit to having done that and they knew what power her "hunches" carried behind them. Perhaps my father had noticed a little more about his new in-laws in the past few months than I had given him credit for.

"No." I answered solemnly, praying that I was telling the truth, at least for tonight, and knowing that I probably wasn't. Charlie sat down in front of the television, where a man in an eighties style jean jacket was pushing a women's head into a tub full of water. As I watched, the woman sprouted fangs and began to scream. Holy water. I flinched and motioned for Quil to turn the channel focusing my attention on the task at hand. I could not let Charlie go back home. It had already been decided. My father was supposed to outlive me, and I would not allow my stubborn stupid meddling in a centuries old feud to change that fact.

"I'm really sorry about this, dad," I began, plopping down next to him and fixing him with my most subservient grin. "You can sleep in Jacob's room, though. Billy just changed the sheets for you. And I promise we can still go to dinner tomorrow."

There was a moment's pause as Charlie weighed his options. I let my eyes wander to the clock once more and hoped upon hope that all of the empty promises I was making tonight would come true when the sun rose in the morning.

"Where are you sleeping then?" Charlie grumbled.

"Uh…on the couch?" My response took the form of an astonished question as I realized I hadn't exactly planned to sleep at all tonight. It occurred to me that I had expected a much larger argument from Charlie and the much greater responsibility of keeping everything around him under wraps as he spent the night trying to figure out why he was being held captive at his best friend's house. I must have seriously underestimated his aversion to the abnormal.

The house fell silent again as the gears turned over in Charlie's head. Finally, he seemed to arrive at a hard decision. Nodding to himself, he turned back toward Seth.

"Well all right then, get me a beer."

No one moved. No one believed it could be that easy.

Charlie looked around at the others with a bemused expression. "What? I'm a cop. You don't expect me to believe a word of that damn terrible lie without a beer in me, do you?"

A grin finally broke through Billy's stern mask. Seth stepped forward so quickly, I couldn't tell if he had tripped.

"Charlie, I'm really sorry…." He choked, but my dad put a hand out to stop him.

"That's enough," he ordered. "I told you I don't want to hear it. All I need to know is that no one is getting hurt tonight, that my daughter's moving away from all of this the day after tomorrow…and that those blankets I'm sleeping in don't have fleas. Now how about that beer?"

"I'll get it," Billy snorted.

It was heading toward four in the morning by the time Charlie called it a night for the second time. Billy had disappeared into his bedroom fifteen minutes earlier, but I was certain he wasn't sleeping. He was waiting for his son. Jared had come back from his patrol with the news that Jake was hoofing it full speed from Vancouver. From where he'd been, Sam was guessing, Jacob would make it here in about three hours. That had been two hours ago. About half an hour after Charlie had shown up. Seth had taken Jared's place on patrol.

"You should get some sleep, Bella," Quil mumbled from beside her through a mouthful of Doritos. "I'll wake you up if there's any news."

I shook my head apologetically and wiped the crumbs from the couch between us. Just as I'd predicted, sleep was not going to be an option tonight. My hand slipped absentmindedly into my pocket for perhaps the fiftieth time that night, searching for a cell phone that wasn't there.

We passed the time as best we could. Staring out the windows waiting for a flash of fur was pure torture and the television held none of our interest for more than the length of a commercial break, so we settled on a half- hearted game of cards. Leah was celebrating her third win when Embry, Collin, and Paul came shuffling through the front door, calling the game to a permanent end. Embry and Collin headed into the kitchen without a word. I heard the fridge opening as Paul pulled Quil up off the couch and plopped down next to me, exhausted.

"Sam's with the mind-reader on the south ridge," he said to Leah with a candid effort to avoid my eyes. "We were patrolling the north bend. Sam will show you where we left off when you phase. It's a lot easier now that the two of them are together."

Leah nodded, suddenly professional. On guard.

"Wait," I stammered. "Who's together?"

Both of them stared back at me like I was stupid, and I would have felt exactly that way if the frustration, black as an ink cloud, hadn't overwhelmed me at that moment. Who else could it be? The bonds of sisterhood were inevitably bound to triumph at the end of this chase. It had only been a matter of time. Tanya had joined her sister, and, as usual, I was one of the last to find out. My head filled with more questions that I couldn't ask.

Leah didn't seem surprised at all. "Any sign of them?" she asked.

"Naw. Not yet, but the soldier leech found signs that they'd crossed over. Sam's letting him and the mind reader on our side to look for them." He glanced poignantly in my direction. "And none of them are talking about what the little one saw to get us all up in arms."

I held his gaze with some effort, but I couldn't risk a comeback for fear that the tremble in my voice would only give rise to more doubt. Instead, I turned to catch Leah and Quil on their way out the door.

"Hey Leah," I called, managing to keep my voice steady. "Thanks for backing me up with Charlie tonight. I guess I still have a lot to learn about cover-ups."

It was meant to be light-hearted, but Leah snarled bitterly.

"You've got a lot to learn about the family you married into," she snapped. "I don't know if you've noticed, but no one around here has ever had to have a personal body guard to protect them from their own in-laws." She pulled off the long-sleeved t-shirt that she'd been wearing to reveal a thin cotton jogging tee underneath—the simpler the better when you were destined to spend the night as a six foot wolf. "And I didn't do it for you. I did it for Charlie. He doesn't deserve to have his whole life upturned just because his daughter is a selfish leech lover…and _no one_ deserves to find out about the existence of werewolves and vampires all in the same two week period." Her face was dark as she and Quil strode out into the darkness. That was exactly how it had happened for her…and for every wolf in her pack.

Embry appeared in the kitchen doorway, his hand buried in a bag of potato chips. I contemplated the hint of a smirk on his face. "How are you holding up, Bella?"

"Not so good," I admitted dejectedly. "It looks like I'm the only one in the house without any idea what's going on."

Embry's smirk grew wise—too wise for a seventeen year old. "Now I don't believe that for a second…and neither do you," he said, digging into his pocket and tossing something small and dark in my direction. "Maybe this will help."

I grabbed for it, but it flew right through my arms, bounced off my chest and fell to the floor in front of me with a thud. I stared down at it stupidly. It was a cell phone. I bent down and picked it up, examining it with as much love and concern as a jeweler who had just been handed the Hope Diamond.

"He told me to tell you that it's Esme's…whichever vamp chick that is. He said not to panic if he doesn't answer. He's out with Sam and that scary brother of his."

I beamed at him. "Embry, you just became my favorite wolf of the pack."

"I know," he said, popping a chip into his mouth and disappearing into the kitchen again. "I get that a lot."

I dialed Edward's number by memory, slipping into the hallway for privacy even though I knew that there was no place in the house where I would be free from unnaturally sensitive prying ears. I expected it to go straight to voicemail, considering the night I was having, but Edward picked up on the first ring.

"Bella." He sounded too relieved. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am," I grumbled, puzzled. I was stuck in LaPush with a canine guard and no idea of what was happening until further notice. He'd made sure of that. "What's happening out there? Paul told me that Tanya's with Irina now."

There was a nervous pause. "Bella, we're coming to you now," he said finally.

"You're coming _here_?"

"We'll be there soon. Please promise me you'll stay with Embry and Paul until we arrive?"

I shivered. The treaty was already all but destroyed—the peace between two volatile neighbors already on too shaky a ground to test. For Edward to simply stroll up to Billy's house—the equivalent of the wolf command center—and with Sam's explicit permission, something had to have gone very wrong.

"What happened?" I demanded in a whisper, acutely aware of both Paul and Embry lurking in the living room and hanging on every anxious word.

"There are…extenuating circumstances," he replied furtively. I heard the wind pick up around him and imagined him speeding effortlessly past the ageless Douglas firs toward me led by a lone black wolf. "Sam knows about Alice's vision. He's called a meeting. He wants me and Alice there."

"Why here? Why not at the border?"

Edward hesitated. "I wouldn't allow them to leave you and Charlie unguarded. Sam understood. He's called all of the wolves back."

As if on cue, the front door burst open and Seth rushed into the hallway, nearly knocking me over in the process. He looked anxious. He looked downright panicked.

"Is that Edward?" he asked. I nodded.

"Tell him that me and Quil caught the red-head's scent right outside the tree line when we were changing back into clothes. Quil phased back to keep watch. We think they might be here."

But there was no need to relay the news. Edward had heard it, whether over the phone or through Sam's thoughts as the information arrived via wolfgram from Quil, I was not sure. I heard someone curse beside him and the wind increased in volume.

"Stay with Seth," he growled. "We'll be there in five minutes."

The phone went dead.

"Was that Jake?"

I turned to see Billy wheeling his way into the hallway. He was wearing a hopeful expression and the same clothes he'd had on when he'd excused himself a few hours ago. I had the sneaking suspicion that I'd find his bed completely untouched too.

"No," Seth said. He looked pale and terrified in the moonlight. I thought I knew why. "It was Edward. Sam's on his way back."

"Did they find her?" I watched an impossible optimism blossom.

Seth frowned, shaking his head. "He's bringing Edward and Alice."

That knocked every last trace of smile from Billy's face. "Here? To the house?" He looked around like he was hoping to find signs of the joke everyone was trying to pull on him, but all of the faces surrounding him were deadly serious. None more than Seth's.

"Alice had one of her visions," Seth said. His voice was shaking. "It's…it's not good." For a moment, I saw the hint of the scared little boy that he must have been before all of this chaos of transformations and mythical battles had started.

It was as I had suspected, then. Everyone who had been in wolf form when Edward had made his final confession to Sam knew exactly why Alice was about to make her first appearance ever on Quileute lands.

Billy's eyes shifted from his youngest pack member to my own inevitably guilty expression.

"What did she see?"

Seth opened his mouth to respond, then his breath stopped and his teeth snapped closed again. He shook his head painfully. It took me only a second longer than Billy to understand. Seth was under alpha orders. Sam had forbidden any disclosure until he arrived with his guests. I pondered the idea of my husband and my tiny sister in the center of a circle of angry wolves, revealing the details of an impending extinction and wondered if Sam had thought this order through properly.

Billy scowled down at the floor. "Jacob should be here for this," he mused. "How far away is he?" He looked around expectantly at blank faces.

"I don't know," Seth confessed. "I guess my mind wasn't really…"

He was interrupted by Leah and Brady's abrupt appearance. Leah was human, and still pulling on her clothes as she leaped across the porch toward Billy. She was the exact same color as Seth.

"The doctor and the soldier are with them," she hissed. "They're all coming _here_."

_Up Next: Battlefield_


	13. Battlefield

**My beta's back! My beta's back! Thank you so much to the amazing Rowan Moon, who is in for a hard ride next chapter I think.**

**So...two weeks and not two months later (and that's all the ego stroking I'll do because God knows I don't deserve it with the deadlines I've blown!), I give you...well...frustration!**

* * *

Paul swore. "Why don't we just invite the whole damn family?"

A chill swept through my arms and into my fingers. Edward had been allowed into LaPush before only once when he'd helped Carlisle to nurse Jacob back to health. Alice had never been over the boundary before, but the information that she was about to provide outweighed any hesitance the pack had about her sudden appearance. Jasper, however, was an entirely different story. I was pretty sure that the wolves would have felt more comfortable walking naked and human into a war zone than allowing Jasper within ten miles of Billy's house. They had always had an especially enhanced hatred of him. They knew a natural born killer when they saw one. It was an instinct they shared.

A general unease seemed to blow in from the south with the breeze. Everyone around me turned toward it, their heads high and human noses working just as hard as their wolf ones would have been, searching for the first sign of enemy approach—an enemy that just happened to be my new family. Frustrated, I pushed past all of them, out into the crisp night air.

Nothing in the night around me gave any sign that things were even the slightest bit awry. The moon had gone down nearly an hour ago and the pre-dawn had taken on the darker grey tinge that hinted at morning on this side of the Cascades. It threatened to paint the pines green once again as I tried to make my way down the porch stairs and toward the place on the edge of the yard where I was sure Edward would appear. A sentry of wolves stopped me, growling uneasily toward a place just to the right of where I'd been headed. Seth came up behind me, still human, and pulled me back up onto the porch as the growling turned to a series of threatened barks and Embry and Paul left us to join the rest of the pack in wolf form. Every eye was focused on the same dark patch of trees.

Sam emerged first—his large black wolf eyes reflecting the porch light as he strode into the yard. He was followed, not quite so confidently, by Carlisle and Edward with Alice close behind. Jasper had taken the rear, trying to see in every direction at once and looking more like a vampire than I'd ever seen him. Carlisle, Alice, and Jasper stopped just past the tree line, back to back in a triangle of protection that did not allow any wolves to their flank. Edward appeared at my side on the porch, surprising Leah, who'd been standing only inches away from me, and causing her to phase instantly. She snapped at him as the remnants of her clothes fell down around us.

"My apologies," Edward said to her, folding his arms around me protectively. He was visibly distracted and staring out into the tree line as if expecting Tanya and Irina to show up at any second. Leah let out an almost human growl in response, but a short angry yip from Sam overruled her protest and seemed to take all of the threat out of her stance.

"What's this about, Carlisle?" Billy's voice rang out from behind me. He directed his inquiry instinctively toward the figure of greatest authority in such a dangerous assembly. "Are we just saying to hell with the treaty now?"

Carlisle's voice reflected none of the tension in the air as he addressed Billy.

"Actually, Mr. Black, I'm hoping that I'll be able to preserve the treaty with my presence here today." It didn't sound right, hearing _Mr. Black_ coming from the mouth of someone who had 300 years on Billy. "We're here at Sam's request."

"Sam asked that one there to come to my house?" Billy indicated Jasper with a jerk of his chin, looking to Sam dubiously. Jasper remained unaffected and eerily motionless, his eyes taking in every position like a chess player planning his next move.

"Sam asked Edward and Alice to accompany him," Carlisle clarified with a diplomatic smile. "I'm afraid that Jasper and I are incredibly protective of our loved ones. I'm sure you understand. Please, think of us as a package deal."

Billy snorted. "That's a package I think I'd have to pass on."

"You should probably listen to what Alice has to say before you make up your mind on that, Billy," Seth interjected. He was the only wolf who had yet to phase.

Billy looked cautiously from Alice to Jasper and back to Seth.

"I thought she couldn't see you boys."

Seth flinched. Alice and Edward did too. It was Carlisle who picked up the slack. "The vision she had tonight affects us all, unfortunately. If it comes to pass, it will be devastating for all of us—not only your boys—and it will be because of a member of our family. We would prefer to avoid such an end."

Billy nodded, turning his attention finally toward Alice. "And what end would that be exactly?"

All eyes, every last claw and fang in the clearing—all full of loathing, and all of them willing and able to leap into a murderous blur in a fraction of a second—turned towards my tiny sister-in-law for answers as she prepared to describe a mass murder that hadn't happened yet. I felt Edward's arms tense around me in anticipation and I was suddenly overwhelmingly grateful for Jasper's presence. Jasper, however, was no longer focused on Alice. His eyes had drifted to the tree line behind us, toward the side of the house. I looked up and saw that Edward's attention was directed entirely toward that position as well. Alice and Carlisle turned almost nonchalantly toward the same place, not sensing anything. Only following suit. The first words didn't come from Alice's mouth, but from the trees where all four of them were now looking.

"You all die."

The reaction was instantaneous. The air filled with confused and furious barking as the wolves closest to the dark patch of forest lunged blindly toward the source of the voice. Seth phased—I heard the liquid sound of his clothes tearing before Edward swung me unceremoniously around, placing his own body between me and the minor chaos just past the porch steps. My view half obscured by his rigid form, I watched as Irina stepped serenely out of the trees. She made one quick, simple side step as the wolves charged, her body blurring for a moment as she slipped effortlessly out of their path. She came into focus again about eight feet from her attackers. To my surprise, not one wolf turned to pursue her. They continued into the woods where she had emerged, fur bristling.

"I go to our elders," Irina continued softly. "And I tell them what I've observed here."

At the sound of her voice, Leah, Jarred, and Paul turned on their haunches and lunged toward her again, teeth gnashing. She faced them without an appearance of concern, pivoting smoothly just out of their bite range, taunting them.

"Irina, this is ludicrous." Carlisle's voice was indignant as he moved forward toward her. "What good can come from this game?" He was not watching her, but the wolves in her pursuit.

"I tell them that you do not depend on the phases of the moon to transform," Irina persisted without the slightest acknowledgement that Carlisle had spoken. Once again the wolves reacted only after she had responded, lunging impulsively.

"And that you are able to choose your victims with human logic." She spun through the space in between two of them.

"That you can communicate without speech, and how it seems that only a single wolf can tear one of our kind limb from limb." Leah dove at the air where Irina had passed. The hollow snap of empty jaws echoed as Irina moved away calmly. The wolves further up did not seem to notice her passing at all.

"And most disturbing of all," she swerved around Paul, close enough to ruffle the fur of his back, "I tell them how you seem to curb your instinct and alter your strategies to honor the will and the impulses of humans." Her eyes flitted momentarily toward me and Billy as she danced circles around her pursuers. "Some more than others."

Edward tensed further. "Have you descended that far since we last met, Irina?"

I noticed that, though it looked as though he was following her movements, he was not focused on his cousin. "Have you allowed one weak-willed fledgling vampire to affect you so much?" He seemed to be watching through her eyes instead, his head turning to follow her, his eyes arriving seconds before she came to her planned position. "That you would bend others' perceptions to feed your own hate? That you would lie to get revenge for him?"

She ignored him. "I tell them this, and they kill you all."

Her expression darkened and her eyes fell toward Carlisle almost apologetically. "They decimate your family….my family...even me, if Alice's recounting of the vision is an honest one." Edward's eyes mirrored hers. He looked toward Alice with reflected reverence only a fraction of a second before Irina did, "And I believe that she is incapable of such a deception. I trust her completely."

Alice was not watching Irina either, but observing the wolves as they sniffed cautiously at the place where the intruder had been moments ago. In fact, the only ones who seemed to notice Irina's progress through the crowd at all were Edward and I. The growling had not ceased, but the wolves were no longer following her, or even attempting to attack. They seemed subdued, unorganized in contrast to Irina's strange overconfidence, with ears perked up in alarm and noses working furiously. Not one of them was tracking her as she advanced casually across the yard, only inches from several pairs of deadly jaws. They had chosen defense over attack.

It occurred to me then with some surprise that no one there could see or smell her. Irina had gone untraceable again, and everyone was operating purely on what she was allowing them to hear of her voice—even Edward. Though the echoes of her own mind in his probably served almost as well as sight, I was the only one in the crowd who was privy to her slow plotted procession through enemy territory.

"I can see her," I confessed in a whisper. Edward was watching Alice now, his eyes flickering from one wolf to the next as Irina's did the same, his body rotating around my own to compensate for Irina's forward movement.

"She knows."

His face was a mask of disgust as he directed his next words toward where he judged Irina must be positioned.

"I know what you think you're doing." His voice was cautionary. "I know what you hope to achieve. It won't end well."

Her rancor was only evident to me as she moved silently away from the pack and toward the place on the outskirts where Alice and Jasper were both crouched. I saw with relief that Jasper was also tracking her—not following her physical form, I guessed, but the emotion that she must have been emitting in inevitable waves. His eyes were jet black, like those of a leopard about to strike.

"Nothing involving these creatures ever ends well," Irina hissed.

As she danced around Sam, headed toward the safety pocket behind Alice and Jasper, I felt the tension in the air around her plummet. It rose again as she passed the porch, converting into an overwhelming desire to react violently. I understood why Carlisle had needed Jasper to come. He wasn't only here to defend Alice. He was manipulating every emotion on the field right now, trying to keep the situation from turning into a bloodbath. As I watched, Irina drifted behind him, falling into his circle of protection. He let her come, maintaining a constant vigilance on the wolves. Irina was family. She was not the threat. Not to him, at least.

Sam, who had been watching me as I followed Irina, started warily toward the two—now three—vampires on the edge of the yard. The invisible border of Jasper's protective sphere seemed to glow in my mind as Sam treaded dangerously…stupidly…into attack range. Jasper hissed and his deluge of false tranquility wavered for a fraction of a second. The wolves snarled back at him, and twitched from their strange stupor for a moment, as if Jasper's strained force field was the only thing preventing them from beginning World War III.

"Don't Sam," Edward cautioned, detaining the alpha wolf with only a tense shake of his head. "It's what she wants." Sam growled grudgingly, not looking away from the place behind Jasper where my eyes told him Irina must be.

"Use your senses. Look around you. We're evenly matched." Edward's voice was soothing, like a man trying to negotiate terms with a suicide bomber, and once again, I was sure I hit the nail on the head. The wolves were all giant time bombs…and Sam was the trigger. "How many of you would die tonight? Who would stand to benefit?"

Sam eyed Jasper like a seasoned gambler sizes up his opposition, seeming to finally fully grasp the situation. A poorly masked anticipation had bloomed on Irina's face as she stood, poised in attack stance and focused entirely on Sam, behind her double immortal wall. I did not miss her disappointment as he backed off bitterly.

_Evenly matched_.

The same amount of wolves and vampires. The words made me wonder how far off Rosalie and Emmett were. I imagined them perched on the border, hanging on every distant word and poised to intervene at the slightest sign of disarray. Esme would be with them, I guessed, worried and just as ready to fight.

Carlisle had been observing from the sidelines, his eyes shifting between the only three of us who seemed to know Irina's position with relative certainty.

"Irina, be reasonable," he said now in as tactful a tone as the situation would allow. "This can't be your aim. You've been a part of my family for nearly a century. I've known you for much longer. You can't possibly desire the deaths of so many only to carry out a vengeance that you already achieved ages ago."

"She does," Edward replied flatly.

"No…I don't."

The contradiction stopped everyone in their tracks. Only Edward was not taken aback. His eyes reflected the coldness I saw in hers, and then they darted to the forest as Irina's did the same.

"I've seen enough death to last ten eternities. There are others among you who would understand." She looked to Carlisle and she let her hand slide casually over the back of Jasper's shoulders. Jasper's lips curled into an involuntary snarl. It was becoming obvious that he did not like operating blind on any level. His frustration radiated in tiny subconscious jolts through his wall of forced peace. "There are those who should already know that I could never desire the extermination of my family."

"And what about the extermination of ours?"

My head jerked toward the sound of the voice and I had to look away instantly, blushing in spite of the circumstances. Sam, naked as the day he was born, was standing in the middle of a protective circle of his pack members, glaring at the blank space behind Jasper where instinct told him Irina should be. His skin glowed a dark silver in the fading moonlight.

"Sam! What are you doing?" I screeched, trying to pull away without thinking. What, exactly, I would have done if Edward had allowed me to run to Sam's side didn't cross my mind once. It didn't need to. I made it one frantic step before I was yanked backward like a yo-yo and held steady, the bulk of Edward's form between me and Irina.

"Smart move, pup," he whispered. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper's head dip in agreement. Both of them seemed almost impressed as they watched the wolf pack close in to cover their leader's nakedness.

"How is asking to be killed a _smart_ move?" I whispered back.

"Irina has never seen a threatened wolf turn back into a human and place himself in such a vulnerable state. She's been acting under the premise that they can't control themselves and has refused to see any other possibility. Sam's thrown her off." Indeed, Irina had stopped moving and was glaring at Sam, clearly shaken. "Now that she's seen him transform, she cannot mask it from Aro if she retreats to the Volturi. It weakens her case against them."

Irina snarled. "One example of self sacrifice cannot blot out years of spilling human blood and killing without remorse or control."

Sam made a move to respond, but Edward was too quick.

"You've observed them now for quite some time," he cut in. "You've had the opportunity to see that they are in control of their transformations. They've never killed at random, and they've never hunted humans."

"Which is more than you can say." Sam.

Paul and Embry had taken advantage of the distraction to break away from the pack and were creeping slowly toward the tree line, giving Jasper a wide berth as they tried to find a more favorable position to attack what they couldn't see or smell. Irina's stance shifted toward them with frightening grace.

"They die first, then?" she asked the all-too-human alpha. Alice saw the two wolves as they tried to enter the trees and her crouch deepened. Irina appeared—only to me—directly behind her, a frightening eagerness in her posture.

"Stand down!" Sam yelled, and even in his human form, his orders took on a barking quality. He was not looking at his two rogue members, or even at the two vampire women poised to defend, but rather at Jasper, who had stopped blinking or even breathing when the two wolves had started for the trees. Sam understood that Jasper's defensive stance had never been against Irina. He was waiting for the wolves to break, already planning for the battle that would be inevitable once his emotional barrier fell…and there was no doubt in anyone's mind which side he would be on.

"Are you seeing this?" Sam called into the empty space behind Alice and Jasper. "Do you see how they protect you? You've just broken a treaty that's been standing for eighty years. Things can never go back to how they were. _You've just destroyed their life here_."

He pointed at Alice, agitated. "That one had visions of how you kill off everyone here! Even her! And they still want to make sure you walk out of here alive. How can _you_ talk about killing without remorse or control?"

"The loyalty that I have for my family extends beyond a strained canine instinct, _wolf_. It is a bond formed around the acquisition of a control that a half-breed would never be able to understand." There was a smirk on her face that no one else could see. "Least of all you…if the scars across the face of your mate are any indication of the control you wish to portray."

Surprisingly enough, it was Leah who reacted first, lunging a few yards forward on her imaginary leash. Sam restricted her with more of a twisted yelp than a discernible order as his resolve shook and his entire body shimmered. He took a reactive step toward Jasper before what I could only imagine was pure stubborn will stopped him. I'd never seen anyone as close to phasing without actually doing so.

"Control it, Sam," Edward said, his hand iron around my wrist. "She's testing you."

"She's doing a good job. What does she want?" The words were low and spoken through clenched teeth, disregarding Irina entirely. Apparently, direct peace talks were over.

There was a moment's hesitation as Edward fought past whatever distractions Irina had filled her mind with to keep him out for the past week.

"She wants you to react. Attack." His face was blank. His eyes moved from wolf to wolf, mirroring every one of Irina's movements with frightening accuracy. "She wants to show us that you can't control yourselves." His entire body suddenly tensed and his view jerked from the wolves back past Jasper and once more into the trees beyond. "She needs you to convince her sister."

Jasper swore under his breath. I saw both him and Alice tense visibly in preparation, and then all attention was turned toward the place in the trees where Edward was looking as Tanya emerged from the darkness. The reaction was instantaneous. There was barrage of barking and several attempts to break away from the pack and lunge toward the new arrival. It took every bit of alpha control that Sam had to rally them around him again and avoid exactly the situation that Edward had just warned him against. I discovered in that moment a wholly new respect for the young pack leader, but the general reaction left no question about it…Tanya, at least, was visible to everyone.

"You're mistaken, Edward," she interjected, gliding to a halt beside her sister. "You're reading things that are not there."

"How certain are you of that?" Edward asked. "Would you lay your life on it? Or Carlisle's? I've been reading thoughts for a long time now."

Tanya pondered her bronze-haired opponent gravely. Edward's abilities were not something to take lightly.

"I am," she said finally. "Irina would never risk so many casualties for such a fruitless endeavor. What you've seen in her thoughts is only a passing idea. One that has already been discarded as foolish. She's come here now only to make peace. Neither of us desire the end that Alice has seen. Who could?"

Sam snarled. "From what I've heard, you've got to want it pretty bad for that one there to see it happening." He indicated Alice. Tanya turned murderous eyes on him.

"What would you know of her talents, boy?" she hissed. "All you see is another creature to mangle."

Sam moved another step forward and the pack moved with him, reacting in fluid unison around him. Alice drew in a hissed breath and Jasper's crouch deepened. His eyes flitted from wolf to wolf, marking the changes on his new chessboard…plotting alternative strategies. His focus was on Quil. Quil would be the first to fall. I held my breath as Edward tensed beside me.

"Sam's right, Tanya, and you know it," he said, staring at her now with such miserable certainty that she could not ignore him. "The Volturi are the only ones that could provoke the kind of destruction in Alice's vision. Irina knows that. Can you deny that she's tried to convince you to go with her to speak to them?"

Tanya had no answer, but Edward had never needed a verbal response as validation. His voice was almost sad as he continued. "She'll go to them with or without you. Her decision has been made. She's come here to convince you…and to save as many of _us_ as she can before she sentences the wolves to extinction...by inciting an attack."

Tanya shook her head and held her hand out blindly in the direction of her invisible sister. "You presume too much." I was the only one who was witness to the internal debate that took place before Irina finally took the hand offered her. "A battle of such magnitude would take the lives of too many of us…"

"I don't presume, Tanya, I _see it_!" Edward's grip was threatening to cut off my circulation. His eyes were livid. "You've had years to hide your thoughts from me, but _I've_ had years to find my way around your distractions! Irina is convinced that our interactions with the wolves are the cause of Alice's vision. She thinks that their presence here will provoke a disciplinary action by the Volturi that will kill us all unless the Quileutes are eliminated here…tonight."

This elicited a round of protest from the wolf pack. My stomach churned with fresh disgust and I half wished that Sam could have his chance at Irina's throat.

"She thinks that once Sam loses control of his pack and attacks her, we'll all rally in her defense—that if my brothers and sisters are at stake, I will be forced to choose sides. She's convinced that I would turn against the wolves." He looked to Irina coldly. "But you already know all of this, don't you Tanya? You knew it when you joined her tonight."

Tanya was holding on to Irina's hand like a drowning swimmer clings to a lifesaver, but her face reflected a doubt in her sister that had probably never been there before in a millennium of undeath. She had known. That much was obvious, but I donn't think that she had believed it.

"Are you implying that she's incorrect in such an assumption?" The doubt disappeared, replaced with something much worse—shock, revulsion…fear? "That you would stand against your own family? Because of the wishes of a human girl?"

"We would prefer never to have to know that answer to that." Carlisle made a final attempt at intervention. "And none of us would desire to have to make that decision. Would you?"

"Answer the question, Edward," Irina pressed. She looked vindicated.

Edward's eyes reflected all of the tension that had to be screaming at him from every mind in the clearing, but his face was grim and determined. He glanced quickly from Alice, wide-eyed and disbelieving, to Carlisle, whose expression was unreadable and whose mind, I guessed, was most certainly not. After a moment's pause, Edward nodded almost too slightly to notice in his father's direction and he drew a slow, controlled breath.

"That is exactly what I'm implying," he said, directing his next comment at Irina with cold determination. "If a battle must be fought today because of your inability to see reason, then I will do my best to make sure that no one innocent dies. I'll fight with the wolves."

The words rang across the yard like a gunshot. They were a bold faced lie. If Edward's loyalty had been that ephemeral, the conflict would have ended in the car ride home from Seattle. I could see that. Jasper and Carlisle could see it. Even the wolves were privy to the deception. Their all-too-human leader's face crumpled as he tried to hide his own disbelief, but Tanya looked like she had been hit by a freight train.

"We've been a part of your family since you were a newborn!" she croaked, stumbling back toward her sister. "You don't truly expect us to believe that you would fight against Alice…against your own _father_…to save a pack of mongrels that have caused you nothing but misfortune since you took up residence here?"

Edward turned to his sister with perfectly feigned solemnity. "Alice?"

Once again, Alice found herself at the center of attention as Tanya and Irina turned in unison to listen to the night's newest finale. Once again, it seemed to be only her talent that could create or avoid a massacre. I wondered if she ever tired of being the center of random bouts of chaos.

Alice nodded painfully, her eyes lost in an all too malleable future. "He fights on their side…and I fight with him." The admission was not a decision on her part, but a detached portion of a vision. She was only playing the narrator now. I couldn't tell if this was her piece of the deception or not.

"Carlisle won't fight against his own children. He doesn't want to resort to violence, but he defends us well. Rose and Emmett fight with us, of course. They're not far off. Esme joins the fight, and Jasper…" She trailed off and her eyes came back into focus. It did not need to be confirmed. Jasper would never fight against Alice. "No one dies. Not tonight at least. Only minor wounds and injured pride. Nothing changes."

Edward's face was dead somber. I hoped it was enough to be convincing.

Tanya was frozen, her expression a twisted mask of betrayal as the confirmation of each reaction appeared in the faces around her. Her voice was weak with that betrayal as she turned back to Edward.

"I wonder, cousin, if you are aware of the consequences your decision will bring over time?"

"I'm aware of the deaths that it will avoid tonight," Edward replied smoothly.

"And you know the course of action that you are forcing upon us," she cast a cutting glance over the wolves, who writhed in their defensive line but did not advance, "by choosing a pack of animals and a human girl over your own kind—your own _family_." She was trembling with repressed emotion.

"Your decisions are your own, Tanya. Don't try to pass them onto me. It is not my actions tonight that will sentence our family to death. I've tried to reason with you. I've tried to make you see what this choice will do to us, but you are blinded by a prejudice that should have ended centuries ago. If your choice is to go to the Volturi and kill us all over a treaty you refuse to understand, then leave. Tonight. Carlisle and Jasper will accompany you to the airport."

"Edward!" Sam's voice rang out in protest. "I can't let them leave!"

"Do you prefer to sacrifice a few of your pack?" Edward snapped. "They are both over one thousand years old and you can't even see one of them to fight her!" His glanced flitted to Jasper for only a moment. "If you attack now, Quil and Paul are dead before you can even phase."

Both wolves moved in closer to their leader. Jasper made his adjustments.

"Please! Sam! Tanya!" Carlisle stepped forward then, his eyes full of something that too closely resembled desperation. "We'll go now. All of us. Right now. Esme and I will accompany you and Irina to Alaska. We can discuss this with the rest of your family before any rash decisions are made."

Both of the sister's expressions had changed. The glittering hatred and determination had disappeared from Irina's eyes, leaving only a bland confusion. Tanya was hurt, conflicted and glaring at Edward as if he had just made an attempt on her life. After a long moment, she seemed to arrive at a painful conclusion. Nodding, she began to back towards the tree line, dragging Irina with her.

"I'm afraid that the rash decisions have all been made tonight in this clearing," she said, grieving. "But you are welcome in our home, Carlisle…however futile your efforts promise to be."

Irina showed none of her sister's composure as she followed her and Carlisle from the yard. She went with eyes blazing, though I was still the only one who could see them. As they neared the trees, Jasper started to back away slowly as well, taking Alice's hand and leaving a lingering relief that washed over the crowd like a cooling mist. My heartbeat slowly started to sink below heart attack levels again, though Edward's hand remained tight enough around my wrist to stop the pulse altogether in one hand. Then his eyes closed slowly and he drew in a penitent breath.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, pulling me into his arms and guiding me backwards toward the door. "He heard the end…it was enough." There was a profound regret on his face that confused me for only a moment until I felt a warm hand close over my left shoulder.

"What's going on out here, Bells?"

My heart sank. I turned in regretful surprise to face my father, who was wide awake and looking around suspiciously, his hair plastered to the side of his head that he had been sleeping on.

"What's everyone doing here? And why the Hell is Sam naked?" This seemed to puzzle him more than the pack of wolves that were now struggling against the will of their leader or the group of pale figures disappearing, entirely too quickly and gracefully, into the forest.

It happened so fast that I didn't have time to react.

Edward, who had been concentrating entirely on Charlie, noticed the oncoming attack only moments before it happened, and only seconds before the scent and sound of the approaching wolf—putting an end to any hope of a peaceful end to the evening. Edward stiffened and his eyes went blank. There was time for both him and Carlisle to utter a unified "no!" before Jacob emerged—actually more like flew—from behind the retreating party, headed straight for Tanya's throat. He would have claimed the first kill of the night if Jasper hadn't been there twice as fast, knocking Jacob away.

"Jacob! Jasper! STOP!"

Someone was screaming and it took me another second to realize that it was me. A reaction executed long before my mind could comrehend what had happened. Without thinking, I pushed forward, trying in vain to slip through Edward's grasp. I heard Billy beside me as he called out to Sam.

"It's Jacob! _Help him_!"

By the time I'd looked back toward the wolves, Sam had phased, his voice turning into a bark in mid-battle-cry and so I didn't actually hear the order freeing the wolves from their previous forced sentinel. They exploded toward their prodigal pack member, leaping in every direction like a pressure mine, all headed toward one final destination.

I did not even have time to process the beginning of a battle before the night was filled with furious half snarls and the sickening crash of indestructible bodies colliding—the same sounds that had taken up residence in my nightmares ever since the confrontation with Victoria's newborn army. Edward turned in a blur and pushed me roughly into Charlie's arms, ignoring my protests completely. Charlie complied, oblivious. Police training had made his reactions quick, but nothing could have prepared him for the situation he had just stumbled into.

"What the Hell am I seeing here?" he demanded.

There was no time to waste in explanation. Edward's face was grim. He met Charlie's eyes the way a father instructing a son would. "Hold her here, Charlie," he commanded. "Don't let her go, please…no matter what you see." There was a horrific shaking snarl as one of the wolves jaws struck home. "If she comes after me, she'll die. Can you see that?"

Charlie nodded.

"Edward, no!" I screamed at him, redoubling my efforts to escape, but my father's grip was adrenaline powered and almost as firm as Edward's. His eyes shifted to the mob of fur and blurred white monsters.

"You're not getting in the middle of that, are…?"

"Edward!"

It was Esme. As predicted, the rest of the Cullens had been waiting on the border to intervene. It had taken them seconds to arrive. As I fought in Charlie's grip, Rosalie and Emmett appeared on the sidelines of the skirmish. Emmett rushed in with an air of joy that made my stomach lurch. Jasper was struggling against Jacob on the edge of the yard. I saw Seth and Paul dive in to defend their pack member, and I caught a brief glimpse of Alice and the Denali sisters as they rushed in on Jasper's behalf before the rest of the battle became a strange haze of fangs and fur and the blur of frighteningly white teeth with only flashes registering in my frustratingly human eyes. Edward and Esme exchanged dismayed glances. I knew what happened next.

"No! Edward, don't go!" I pleaded, knowing it would do no good.

"Don't let her come after me," he said to Esme, and then with a quick evaluating glance at Charlie, "Don't let him go for his gun."

"My gun!" Charlie jerked as if he'd just awoken from a nightmare. His arms dropped and he turned for the porch door. I lurched toward the battle, but Esme stopped me after only a foot, detaining both me and my father with one cold gesture. I squealed in frustration, but Charlie seemed to realize exactly how little his gun would serve him and turned back without protest. He grabbed me around the shoulders again.

"Be careful," Esme said to Edward. She was shaking—whether from fear for her family or desire to join her son I couldn't be sure—and her eyes were following something in the crowd, moving impossibly fast. Carlisle perhaps, or one of her daughters.

Edward nodded, his face bleak and distant as if his mind had already joined the fight. His gaze slipped back to me.

"I love you," he said. "I'm sorry."

I felt a lingering kiss on my forehead and reached out to grip his arm—to hold him there with me, but he was already gone into the fray. I fought furiously against Charlie, but I was forced to concede when he lost his hold on my shoulders and Esme took over. Charlie came up beside Billy, rubbing an elbow that I had just kicked in my efforts. He didn't look at me or at his frantic friend. He was fixed on the battle as if in a trance.

"Did your son just…disappear?" he asked Esme simply. There was no reply.

"Are your kids in the middle of that?" he tried again.

As if in response, Emmett was thrown free of the group, flung onto his back by a snarling black blur. Charlie's hand went instinctively for the gun that, thankfully, wasn't on his hip. Esme's slipped to her heart and she took an instinctive step toward her son. I took two before she pulled me back. Charlie's attention flickered from the fight to the mother, and he stared at her finally with wide eyes as if seeing her for the first time.

"What the hell _are_ you?"

Esme flinched, but continued to stand unnaturally still and silent, her vampire eyes catching every move that our human ones could not. The battle took on a flowing chaos that I could only watch from a distance. The wolves moved just as fluently as the vampires, and though most of them had fanned out and gone after different strategic targets, there was the impression that they were all moving as one instrument, all set on defending their home. It was perfectly choreographed, terrifying.

There was an animal scream and the sickening crunch of bone from somewhere on the edge of the fight. I turned my attention toward the source in time to find Irina pulling away from the main fray. Quil passed right by her, lunging for what I imagined was an otherwise occupied Alice and exposing himself completely, but he did not even notice the wild blond vampire. She was still untraceable. I whimpered and tried to wriggle out of Esme's grasp.

Irina did not attack, however. Her eyes turned up into a poignant glare that was unmistakably directed at me. She turned, kicked out at a wolf that I could not identify, and pulled her sister quickly from the ground. Then they were gone—disappearing into the forest and away from the battle that they had started. I felt, rather than saw Esme's head turn as she followed their progress.

"Did you see them?" I asked.

"I saw Tanya," she admitted, releasing me. "Was Irina with her?"

I nodded anxiously. "We have to stop…"

But that was as far as I got. A squeak of surprise sounded from one of the girls, followed by a rising shriek that cut off too quickly and Esme disappeared from my side without warning. Charlie rushed over to grab me, but I slipped easily away and leapt down the porch steps in one bound, some of his choicest swear words echoing behind me.

"They're gone!" I screamed into the blur of writhing forms. "Irina's not here anymore! You're fighting each other!"

My words had absolutely no affect, but Esme's inside influence apparently had. The wolves at the far side of the battle had ceased their attack. I saw Alice and three of pack members circling each other dangerously as Carlisle and Esme stood in the center talking them down. Alice was favoring her left hand and two of the wolves were visibly limping.

Frantically, I searched the rest of the battleground for Edward. He appeared on the outskirts at the other end, pulling Rosalie away. By the looks of it, he was having a difficult time. Rosalie was clutching at her cheek and writhing in his arms.

"That _bitch_!" she screamed. "I'm going to knock every one of those teeth from her flea infested jaw!"

To my surprise, Edward was grinning. I started toward them, skirting the grappling forms of Emmett, Jasper, and several wolves. I was desperate, but not quite stupid. There was nothing I could do in the center of an immortal catfight but die. I was halfway to him when Edward noticed my progress. His head snapped up and the glow of battle disappeared instantly from his face.

"Bella, _stay where you are_!"

Several things seemed to happen simultaneously then. It was the same feeling that I'd had in the moments before Tyler's runaway van had forced Edward to reveal himself to me. Nothing moved any slower. Nothing became more clear, but the adrenaline seemed to take over, refining my instincts and obliterating my common sense altogether.

I saw Edward's face melt into a mask of frustration and terror. I saw Rosalie slip from his grasp and start toward Leah with a frightening snarl that caused the tear in her cheek to gape. But of infinitely more importance was the huge, russet-brown blur that was headed to intercept Rosalie. Jacob had been thrown out of the battle that was still raging between Emmett, Jasper, and four of the more stubborn members of the pack. He'd recovered quickly and redirected his attack, barreling, out of control, toward Rosalie…and Edward was between them, completely distracted by me.

I darted toward him, almost tripping over Embry's hindquarters as he was thrown into my path. If I could arrive in time to put myself in between them, Jake would stop. I was sure of it. He'd done it before.

It took less than a second for Edward to notice the charging wolf and realize what I was trying to do. A growl began deep in his chest as he started toward me without hesitation. Jake, who had been focused on Rosalie, was distracted by Edward's sudden movement and reacted with nothing more than pure reflex. He altered his course instantly and lunged toward Edward instead, arriving just as his arms closed around me.

I felt myself being turned impossibly fast and realized that Edward was turning his back on a charging werewolf to protect me, leaving himself completely defenseless in the process.

"No, Edward! He'll stop if he sees me!" I screamed at him.

But Jacob didn't stop.

There was time, in my heightened state, to register the look of terror that overtook the fury in Jacob's lupine eyes. There was time for me to understand my own error in my calculation of projectory force, but there wasn't enough for Edward to fully turn and pull me into his barrier of protection before teeth collided with stone cold flesh. I heard the growl in Edward's chest become a cry of fury as a strange burning pressure began in my neck…heard it rise to inhuman levels as something warm began to flow from my throat and down my chest. And then Edward's arms were like a stone enclave around me, protecting me from being crushed under both of their weight as both figures fell on top of me and the breaking dawn was blotted out entirely.

_Up Next: Nope! No dice! I've got it written. It'll come out in it's semi-timely manner, but the name will kind of give it away. Let me be evil for a couple of weeks!_


	14. Death and Undeath

_Death was supposed to be written in black—in terms of terror…of blood, and pain, and loss. It was supposed to be darkness that faded to a deeper shade inside…obsidian in color with no light around it to reveal its transparent nature. Death was the end of all things. Described in a million words by thousands of authors in thousands of years of literature, all made obsolete by one inevitable finale. It was supposed to be dark. _

_My death was white. At least it began that way._

_No, it was something more glorious than white—something that couldn't be written. Something that put every book I'd ever read to shame in a faded heartbeat. It was pure, and beautiful, and inviting, and it called to me from the corners of my own consciousness—from the air all around me in welcoming, familiar voices._

_White…yes…to wash away the coppery taste of blood on my tongue and the memory of terrified golden eyes…of everything that I was about to lose. A blinding white to take the pain—to snatch it from my throat and to stop my burning breath. To leave me to wonder what had happened…_

"What happened?"

The voice was near crazy. "Oh God, what did I do!"

_Jacob? Had Jacob phased back?_

I couldn't breath.

It took me some time to realize why, though how long exactly, I couldn't say. Time didn't seem to be flowing like it should be. It was a moment, or perhaps several before I recognized the acute pressure on my chest. It wasn't pain, exactly—only something cold and heavy that prevented me from drawing a breath. It was Edward. It had to be. I tried to turn to the side and free my arms—to push him off—but my upper body did not seem to comply.

"Edward, you're crushing me," I tried to whimper, and had to add my voice to the list of things that were no longer functioning at the moment.

A gush of something warm—hot even—flowed down over my shoulders then, covering my neck and pooling in the gap between my collar bones. It formed tiny tributaries that seeped quickly toward the ground where it coagulated in an uncomfortably warm pool below me. I shuddered, desiring more than anything to wash whatever it was off of me. It felt like it should be sticky—warm liquids were always sticky—and the smell of it sent waves of vaguely familiar nausea rolling through me. I tried again to draw a breath, but something was still on my chest. The pressure had grown larger and it was starting to hurt.

"Edward!" It came out as a whisper…wet and weak.

"No." The voice came from farther away than I'd expected. "Not now. Not on their land!"

A silhouette fell over me—a pale one with wide, furious eyes that was too beautiful, and moved too quickly to be anyone but Edward. He had not fallen over me as I'd predicted. A strange relief washed through me. It came with a sigh that I could not retrieve. The weight that was not Edward wouldn't let me inhale. His hands were on my face in an instant, brushing hair from my eyes that was soaked in the same warm liquid that covered the rest of my torso.

"Not here, God damn it!" he moaned in a half-crazed tone that matched his expression perfectly.

His was the only voice; the only sound in the entire yard now. The fighting had ended, and it had left a strange, ethereal peace as an aftermath. Even the wind through the trees seemed to have ceased. I wondered if anyone had been hurt badly…if Jacob had stopped himself in time after all; if Edward had come out unscathed. The figure above me looked relatively undamaged, but I wanted to get a better look…to feel him whole and unharmed, just to be sure.

If it weren't for this weight…

"I can't breath," I repeated. I couldn't hear myself—didn't know if Edward could hear me. I tried to raise my hand to his face and a stab of pain shot up through my shoulder and into my chest. A squeak of surprise escaped me, followed by a gush of liquid warmth.

There was an anguish on Edward's face that surpassed any I'd seen there before as he took my arm and placed it gently on the ground again. "You've been…injured, Bella. Don't try to move."

And it hit me then…the distress in his eyes…the silence all around us. It was because of me. Jacob hadn't stopped in time, but it hadn't been Edward injured in the charge. It was _me_ that was hurt. Only me. Funny. There wasn't much pain…only a slow, cold sensation that was creeping up over me from the ground in spite of the rapidly forming pool below me.

"_Bella_? Is that my Bells?"

From the corner of my eye I saw my father bound from the porch, leaping over the edge, ignoring the stairs all together and bolting toward me. There was terror in his eyes. Not yet pure terror—not what I saw threatening in the expressions of all of the vampires around me, but terror all the same. Tainted, still, with disbelief.

"_What did you do to her_?"

He was running toward me, and so his accusation was not directed at anyone in particular, and he didn't notice anything unusual when Jasper appeared out of nowhere, catching him in midstride and holding him there, yards away from me, though he whipped around and fixed him with a death glare.

"Get your hands off me, you God damn freak of nat_ure_," Charlie growled. It was intended to be threatening, but his voice cracked on the last word. He turned frantic eyes toward me again, practically pleading with Jasper to do the same. "That's my little girl on the ground! Look what you bastards did to her!"

But Jasper did not follow his eyes. He did not turn to observe whatever sinister scene I must have been the center of, and he was unphased by Charlie's insults and pointless struggles to break free. Jasper's attention had been directed toward a more immediate danger, and he pulled Charlie away from it now—back toward the porch with grave purpose…away from me, and away from the scent all around me. Because I recognized the smell now—thick, coppery…rust.

Blood.

And from the feel and smell of it, more than I had ever seen spilled. Not Jacob's. Certainly not Edward's. It was _my_ blood. And that was all it took—recognition—to send me spiraling down into the depths of darkness.

_So much darkness._

_It dripped like dye into a glass of water…something solid and liquid at the same time that danced, and changed, and writhed into a million Rorschach images as it penetrated my strange white oblivion, absorbing the light...overshadowing the promise of something greater beyond its ever-growing boundaries. It was the shade of defiance…the color of burning, and it was wiping away death as it came. _

_I should have cowered away from it. I should have cried out and struggled to avoid it until its tendrils overtook me, but my hands reached out for it, longing to feel the beautiful black liquid between my fingers. It flowed toward me like a tide, branching out and expanding until my hands pushed through and I was plunged into an entirely different world. _

_And the world was on fire._

_My hands had been the first part of me to touch the void, but the pain began, oddly, in my lips and my tongue. It spread like flames over a doll doused in gasoline, and before I could even question the disappearance of the light, my entire body was engulfed. Pain, like I had never felt before in a lifetime of minor injuries, took root in my skin and began to bore into every pore of my body. My arms reached back toward where I had come from in desperation, my hands searching for the way out of this new torment, and my fingers clawing at nothing. The path behind me had turned black. _

_I screamed as my stomach seized and my lungs breathed in the pain, but here in this world, my scream did not sound. I tried to curl into a fetal position, but I found myself detached from my body; my mind trapped in a vessel that I could no longer control. I screeched, and thrashed, and flailed with every bit of strength that was left to me as the darkness ate its way into my brain, but my body stayed motionless…dead._

_Somewhere, far away, my mind registered a place where I could pull away—a place where my body was still mine and I could shrink back from the darkness and scream. Somewhere far away, I could react to the agony, but that place would do me no good in this dark hell. I tried to go there anyway…if only in my mind. If only to put a voice to my torture. _

"_She's moving."_

_Heard from that same distant place, from a voice echoing concern that arrived to me even here; even over the roar and the rush of the fire that crawled behind my ears._

It took so much time. _This time the words were not spoken. They were not heard. It was almost as if I had felt them. _I thought she was gone. HE thought she was gone.

"_It's working." Spoken this time, with relief—but only a hint of it. The voice was familiar, sweet—something from another place. From before the darkness and even before the light—a place that I knew could burn away entirely in the furnace behind my cheeks now, spreading like a demonic blush. The voice belonged to amber eyes, and impossible speed…to a crooked smile and cool, blessedly cold arms. It was _his_ voice—the voice of…_

"Edward?"

Another thick stream of blood flowed down my shoulders.

"Don't try to talk."

He was leaning over me now in the same manner that I'd seen the EMT's do before when I'd fractured my skull attempting to skateboard in Phoenix—stabilizing my neck and checking my vital signs. His mannerisms were businesslike, but he could not hide the urgency with which he moved or the shadow that fell over his face when his eyes dropped to the place just below my jaw line, toward which everyone else's attention seemed to already be focused. There was pain there now—a sharp steady one that was growing less tolerable by the second. I could only imagine how large and how deep the cut had to be to cause so much blood loss…and I couldn't begin to imagine how Edward was able to control himself around such a morbid delicacy.

"Edward, the blood…"

"I know. Just hold still, love." His eyes found mine, and held me there. His hands closed around my shoulders in as supporting a gesture as he could provide without moving me. That was the best thing he could have done then, because that was when the real pain kicked in. What had been a strange, undecipherable burning sensation in my throat from the beginning, now combined with the weight on my chest and surged into a pulsing agony that took over my entire upper body and seemed to grow worse with each frighteningly fast beat of my heart.

I stifled a scream, and my body convulsed—my back arching suddenly and my heels digging deeply into the grass, finally calming into a series of uncontrollable tremors that caused the wound to spew more blood onto the already saturated ground. Edward cried out beside me.

"No! No…Bella, please…not this way!" His face was resolute and tortured and beautiful all at once. I tried to hold on to that image as my eyesight blurred. "Stay with me. Open your eyes! CARLISLE!"

But Carlisle was already there at his side, staring down at my wounded throat with a look of cold professional determination. It was the face that I imagined he wore in the hospital when he was confronted, again and again, with the fragility of the human form, and I focused on it now as he began his examination. I let it block out the sentinel of figures in the yard that were all slowly migrating toward my prostrate form, faces frozen in similar maws of helpless anguish. Let it silence Charlie's labored sobs and dull the throbbing in my lungs.

A series of racking coughs overwhelmed me then, and a fine spray of blood flew from my lips, spattering across Edward's shirt and reaching as high as his chin. I watched as his eyes widened in shock and turned jet black. His lips parted, and his teeth drew closer to my ruined throat for just a second before a tortured sigh escaped him and he disappeared from my side. I could no longer feel his arms around me, holding me there in consciousness, and I let out a scream.

_A scream._

_A strangled, high pitch shriek that echoed in my own mind alone. _

_It was meant to form words—to call out to the only one who was preventing my fall into complete darkness—but the pain twisted my efforts into primeval sounds instead. There had been an indeterminable amount of time where it had slowed and centered around my throat and my chest. Every breath of air that I'd taken had turned into a molten tide exploding from my lungs, rising into my throat and preventing my screams as it burned away even my concept of time. Hours had begun to pass in seconds, and seconds in days. It had become impossible to imagine how long I had been trapped inside this oblivion._

_I struggled and cried as the pain devoured my ribs and spread relentlessly into every vein and every neuron. It pulsed from my skull to the tips of my toes in excruciating electrical currents. My whole body seized and shuddered and twisted, but only in that strange world, far away—the place where the voices came from. Here in Hell, I no longer had a body…only a searing semi-consciousness that was everywhere and everything—the only thing that I remembered, and the only thing that I could imagine ever feeling again._

_And then I felt hands on me—smooth, icy hands that glided over unseen arms, offering a moment's reprieve wherever they touched, like a winter breeze through the coals of a firestorm._

"_I'm right beside you, Bella. Can you hear me?"_

_It was _his_ voice again, still tinged with worry. I could feel the fear in his touch. It pulsed from his skin in waves._

She's not healing. _High, sweet, feminine. Not his voice anymore. Not a voice at all. _

"_She will," came the response, annoyed and unwavering. _ Please…please.

_His hands fell away—there one moment and then gone again, leaving a trail of agonizing memory in their absence. _

It's been too long_. Felt and not heard again, through a shower of white hot needles._

"_It's only been two days." _

_His tone was sharp, and the statement was accompanied by a series of strange flashes, woven into images by my overtaxed synapses. I centered in on them and let them take me away from another burning wave._

_There was a girl with long brown hair in the room with him; pale and unmoving on a bed of grey silk. Most of the images focused around her, and most were veiled in sheets of emotion that were so strong they blurred everything around them. I watched her for a moment, swirling through half light in a long white dress…trudging stubbornly through the underbrush with a scowl of concentration carved into her face…sleeping…sleeping—so many hours passed away asleep in those strange, strong arms. The images were washed in a bright white that smelled like the sun's rays and felt like memory. They faded too quickly—replaced by the flames of my reality and the ashes of _his_. _

_The girl formed again in my mind. Not dancing this time. Not smiling or sleeping, but dead, sheathed in a grey cloud of mourning that hurt almost as much as the burning in my own skin. Her body was clothed in plain white cotton, but there was something wrong with her appearance. Her chest was frighteningly misshapen—collapsed on one side, right arm hanging at an odd angle. Her throat was pale and raw, ripped open and displaying dry, torn vessels that would never have been in view if the girl were alive. I stared into half closed eyelids—into white, sightless eyes. She was dead. I could feel the loss radiating from the corner of the room and a cry of mourning for her formed in my lungs. _

_A shock of pain ripped through me, causing me to cringe and writhe in my own dark world. The dead girl in my visions writhed too. Her lips curled into a snarl and the wound in her neck gaped, but her eyes remained half closed and gone. I felt cold arms curl around me…saw them curl around her, and it hit me with a sudden frigid certainty. _

_It was me. _

_I was the girl in the room…the one who was dead and alive at the same time. The one with her throat splayed and her eyes gone from this world…with a body cold and dead, but a heart and mind that still clung to life—to _him_. Because I knew that it was him who held me now, even though I could not yet remember who he was. I knew that it was his mind that pulled me away from the torture, and his thoughts that kept me from falling back into a pool of fire._

Please, Bella. Fight it. Come out of it. Come back to me. Please.

_It was a mantra. It was a chorus repeated again and again until the words became the soundtrack to my tiny piece of hell. I listened to the hum of the words in his head and I felt myself falling towards them—out of the dark and toward the girl in white...toward the pain of a broken mortal body and the wounds that had left me dead after all . Still, I pushed toward it—struggled to die just as much I as had once struggled to live. _

A struggle…that's what everything had suddenly turned into. A struggle to breath…to move…to understand the words of the pale figure hovering over me.

"…laceration in the throat. Right jugular and carotid severed. Left vessels appear intact. Pressure here."

It was Carlisle, spoken in the urgent tones of someone who knew exactly how much time I had left with those injuries. Edward had returned to my side, and he obeyed before the command had even left his father's mouth. I felt pressure on my neck and a pain that caused me to cry out. All that came to my lips were a series of choked gushes.

"Trachea…" Carlisle continued his probing. "Compromised."

Edward drew in a sharp, pained breath as his father moved down my mangled body. "Can we intubate?"

Carlisle shook his head distractedly. I followed his progress, struggling for breath that did not come as his hands glided over my ribs. There was no pain this time. I wondered if there should have been.

"Intubation would be pointless. The right lung is collapsed." More probing. "Five…perhaps six ribs broken. She has a flail chest." I wondered quietly what that meant. "Lower organs appear unharmed, but she's going into shock."

"What about the spinal column?" Edward's tone was one of pleading rather than inquiry. Carlisle avoided his eyes.

"Damaged."

Father and son shared a moment in which much more than looks were exchanged, and the silence between them was broken only by my own suffocated struggle for breath. Edward's eyes blazed, and then dulled entirely—the hope blown out of them just as efficiently as a flame from a candle. I watched as his entire body slumped miserably.

"You can't save her."

Carlisle shook his head. "I can't even be certain that the venom…"

His conjectures were interrupted by Charlie's renewed cries and a miserable moan from my left. I turned my head instinctively toward the sound and a pulse of pain raced down my neck. It was ice cold this time. I was so cold now.

The moan had come from Jacob. He was standing, motionless and once again human, behind two somber wolves. Their fur seemed to gleam in the early morning light. Jacob was almost as pale as the vampires.

"This is my fault," he whispered. "I couldn't stop." His voice was small and unbelieving, filled with impending tears. "She jumped in front of me. I was going too fast. I…I attacked her."

"_Attacked_ her?" Edward's eyes became livid and half crazed as he directed all of his wrath toward Jacob. The hand that was not stopping me from bleeding to death became a rigid claw. "You've _killed_ her, you bastard!"

He was shaking now with poorly controlled rage as he leaned unconsciously toward my devastated best friend. I understood that the only thing keeping him from lunging at Jacob at this point was the hand on my throat that kept the last of my blood from spilling out into the weeds. That, and his desire to be beside me now as I died. Jacob knew this too. Still, he didn't move.

Charlie did. He'd heard Edward's final diagnosis, of course.

"Nooo!" he screamed. "NO! She's not going to die!" I could tell from the tremble in his words that he had redoubled his efforts to escape Jasper's grasp, but I could not see the struggle. Turning hurt too much…stole breath I did not have. Jasper let Charlie go, and he sped to my side, pushing wolves as big as him out of the way as he came.

"Doctor Cullen, please tell me she's not going to die!"

"Charlie, her chest has been crushed and one of her lungs has stopped working." He looked down ominously at my throat. "It's only a matter of minutes before the blood stops circulating to her brain completely. I can't repair the damage. Not here."

"Call the damn ambulance then! Get her to a place where they can!" Tears streamed down his face now. I'd never seen Charlie cry.

"We can do that." Carlisle's voice was calm and practiced, chipped to perfection by three centuries of recounting deaths to loved ones. "But she'll be gone before the ambulance arrives."

I had known this already, of course—if there had been any hope at all, Carlisle wouldn't have been wasting his time explaining the inevitable to Charlie—but I watched as the tragedy crashed across my father's face. A desire to react, to comfort him, overwhelmed me, but I couldn't move. My whole body was so cold now, and my breath was coming in moist, shallow gasps that brought choking more often than the air I so desperately needed. It occurred to me then how selfish I had been to plan to leave my father so soon. My death…my very close death…would kill him just as surely as it would kill Edward.

I saw that fact confirmed in Edward's eyes too as he recognized the only option left to him now. His January deadline had been blown to bits. But as I stared, blood blurring the sight in one eye now, I saw Carlisle shake his head again and he spoke to his son in a whisper that was too fast and too low to be meant for anyone else but him. I tried to listen anyway. My hearing was surprisingly acute when there was hardly a pulse to beat in my ears.

"…too slow…too far gone…" The words were nothing more than a series of divined s's and t's in my ears. "…must circulate…" And then the most damning ones, "…in Quileute territory."

Edward's despair was almost palpable. His father's words were the confirmation of both his and my worst fears. He couldn't turn me in time. Not here. Not in Billy's front yard with every last wolf looking on. It would cause a massacre, but there was no way that I would make it past the trees as a mortal.

Charlie was bent down beside Edward now, asking Carlisle to do something…anything besides just standing there watching me die, but there was nothing left to do. I felt it coming—creeping up through my limbs just like frost over a winter window. Too little blood to my brain. Too little time for the venom to get to my heart before I died. Even venom needed a pulse to circulate.

I gasped and struggled to grab onto Edward's hand. It was no longer cold to me. Eternity had turned out to be not so long after all. We were both staring a very real death in the face.

_Real death…_

_Yes, that was what it felt like now. Not the bodiless, otherworldly fire from before. Not an agony that jumped from hands to eyes to brain and made me want to tear away at my own organs, but a different kind altogether—much more material…the kind of pain that I knew would come to an end eventually. It centered again around my chest—pooled there just like the blood that I almost remembered losing now. Realizing that I had somehow won back control of my arms, I tried to claw at my throat. At my stomach. To pull the fire out of my lungs, but something else was there with me—cold in the extreme—to pin my arms at my side. _

She'll injure herself again_. _

"_Hold her down." A voice rang through the red fog around me. "I need to administer more morphine."_

And you need to hunt.

"_I'll hunt with Bella in a few hours."_

_Bella. That was her name. That was _my_ name._

You won't be able to control a newborn if you are unable to control your own instinct. _The voice was admonishing. Loud in my head, and growing louder as I listened. _Esme and I will stay with her. Go with Jasper and Alice. They've been waiting for you. Alice can alert you to any unforeseen changes in her condition.

"_I'll hunt with my wife," the voice repeated, and the tone around his words was determined. I saw it in a colored cloud around him, almost as dark as the pain around me. "Emmett and Jasper will come with us when she's ready."_

_I saw the needle go into my pale skin before I felt it. It was not the dull sting of a pinprick that I felt—something so small had been rendered entirely insignificant in my current situation—but a beautiful, numbing warmth that spread from the pinpoint outward, washing over my arms and legs and mind, but passing through the pain without touching it. It threatened to drag me back out of this world and toward the moving, crawling darkness once again. I held on tight. Not to consciousness this time. Not to life, but to an undeath that would bring me back to him. The drugs brought tears to my eyes. I watched them fall through the mind of someone else. They felt like liquid fire._

_Cold hands drifted over me, and I saw in another strange series of images that the girl was healing. I was healing. Her wounds—my wounds—were closing inhumanly quickly, scarring without stitches and bruising without blood, finally disappearing entirely. _

_The pain was something wholly different, however. It did not go away. It clung to every piece of me still, a burning, clawing creature alive inside me…a death come due that would not give up so easily. The pain surged. I seized, and my jaw snapped convulsively closed on my lower lip. It was an act that should have torn a hole right through it. Instead, my teeth felt as if they were grinding against stone. _

She's stronger now. _ A different voice. Calm and confident Loud in my head. Hurting my mind as the emotional cloud around him darkened…almost hardened._ Her heart will stop soon.

Oh, Edward! She's so beautiful! _Thoughts shouted at him from the doorway. I flinched and tried to escape the flashes of images that were flung in the wake of the words._

_His hand tightened around mine._

Do you think this will teach her to stay out of the middle of dog fights? _Thought bitingly, but accompanied by a tarnished grey mist of what could only be concern._

_There were others in the room now. Other voices and other images flying at me from everywhere. _

She'll be impossible to control. She was impossible to control when she was human.

_They flowed around me in a tide of colored excitement and silver tinged anticipation, each voice louder than the next—each image more intrusive. I moaned and tried to push them away as they came, but of course there was nothing there. They were only inside my mind._

Her reactions are too severe. I'm not sure the morphine is having any effect.

_Flashes and feelings that circled the room, curling around my pale new body and striking like lightning from the clouds of pain that were still hovering close around me. Voices that whispered from every direction—that mixed and swirled together, and amplified, pushing me downward again into a different darkness. I tumbled through the floor, away from the room and into a clearing, dark and bitter cold—an entirely different time. It was a sightless abyss where the voices only echoed in the distance…_

Echoes in the distance.

All of the voices around me had taken on that quality. Even the strange one that was shouting now, pulling me away from my own pain.

It was Charlie. He had left my side and was stumbling angrily toward Jacob.

"You killed her!"

His fist flung back and then forward with his full force behind it. The impact should have sent the seventeen year old reeling, but Jacob stayed firmly planted where he was, staring back at Charlie in bewildered resignation, as if my father was doing nothing more than playfully ruffling his hair. Charlie's fist folded and crunched against Jacob's jaw. The impact was audible, but Charlie continued. "She was your friend! She accepted everything about you and _look what you did_! Aw Bella…"

He broke off into senseless syllables, though he continued to swing blindly. Jacob made no effort to defend himself. Instead, he stared down at the growing pool below me as if lost in concentration. He detained my father only when it became obvious that Charlie would shatter both hands before his rage was spent. His next words were barely heard over Charlie's sobs.

"Turn her."

His voice was gravelly—close to tears and hating every last letter of what was coming out of his mouth.

Edward's eyes were gone from mine in an instant. He stared up in shock and puzzlement at his one unphased rival as if he had not comprehended the words…or even the thought process behind them.

"Make her a _leech_, god dammit!"

A shock of liquid ice shot down my spine, and I tried to hide the shiver of pain that it brought with it as Edward's eyes darted around the circle of gathered wolves. It was a breach of the greatest kind—an annihilation that had threatened to bring bloodshed for decades. The wolves knew this just as well as Edward. They avoided his eyes and shifted uncomfortably as if they were about to consent to an execution. Many of them glanced in horror toward their human pack member, but there was no open protest. To deny this last option was to turn one of their own into a murderer.

In the silence, all eyes fell to Sam. His lip was curled into a resentful snarl and he emitted a low growl that made his true inclination more than obvious, but his attention had wandered to Charlie, who was now knelt beside me, grasping my hand like a lifeline and sobbing into a puddle of blood soaked grass. I was the only thing that Charlie had left. Sam couldn't stand by and watch as I was taken away from him because of a simple slip-up on the part of one of his pack. His head bent reluctantly into what desperate eyes would most undoubtedly construe as his agreement.

Edward's eyes fell to me again and I watched the internal debate in them as my heart lurched unsteadily and then slowed. My breath caught again and I choked. I felt blood trickling down over my chin. That was all that it took for the decision to appear on his face—if it had ever been a real decision at all. Faced with the responsibility of taking my soul or the possibility of losing me forever, my soul was doomed to be lost. He couldn't watch me die.

"Is there time?" he asked Carlisle without looking up.

"I don't know. Her pulse is almost gone. I'm not sure how much blood is even arriving to her brain at this point. You can't do it alone."

"But you can help?" It was Charlie. He had stopped crying and a spark of hope had appeared again in his crinkled eyes.

There was apprehension in Carlisle's voice as he answered. "I can't save her, Charlie, she's going to die."

"But you can…_turn her_." He repeated the words that had come from Jacob's mouth as if they were foreign. He had no idea what drastic measures they entailed. "Do it!"

Carlisle had been listening to my pulse as he spoke. The result must have been less than favorable. He frowned toward Edward with a new urgency. "Her heart is failing. Even both of us combined…"

"There's three of us," It was Emmett's voice, and though I could not see him through the strange fog that was gathering in my periphery, I could hear the tremble of uncertainty that had crept into his words. Edward shook his head, but Rosalie interrupted him before he could respond.

"Dammit, Emmett!" she hissed. "With your will power, you'll kill her for sure. Back up. I'll do it." She looked just about as willing to do so as the wolves were to serve as witnesses, but her eyes were firm as she pushed her husband safely away from the growing puddle of blood.

Alice made a move toward us as well, but Edward stopped her with a beseeching glance toward Charlie. There was no option left of where I would be turned, but he would not do it in front of my father. Alice nodded, a hint of relief in her expression, and grabbed Charlie's shoulders gently, pulling him away from my side. He went with her grudgingly.

"Charlie, you've seen what we can do? My brothers, and sisters, and I?" She was pulling him toward Billy and toward the house as she spoke. "Charlie, look at me! You saw the battle?"

None of the three vampires crouched around me moved as Charlie ripped his eyes from my torn form and nodded. It occurred to me then that Edward had not only wanted to save Charlie the trauma of watching his daughter turned into a vampire. He was seeking my father's permission. My heart slowed and my world spun. I focused on the pain in my lungs to hold me in consciousness. I wasn't sure if there was time to deal with the formalities of consent.

"We don't have time for this." Rosalie insisted, echoing my own worries. Her eyes were fixed on a place just above my right shoulder. "Listen."

And I could hear it now too…a rushing in my ears and the strange sound of a life fading, but not to black…not like fainting. Everything was becoming brighter—more vivid, more defined. The arrival of something much more permanent and beautiful that was almost like falling away.

_Falling away._

_Into light. Into darkness. I fell so fast that I couldn't tell which. The world around me turned and spun…turned gray and then black. It grew transparent, seemingly at battle with the voices and images from some other place that pushed at the boundaries, but the darkness held. I fell for what seemed like forever, but did not land. Instead, the ground spun around me—crept up below me and I was lying in the tall grass before I was even aware that grass existed here._

_The pain had not gone, but it was muted. It took away my breath for a moment as my mind spun again and I realized that the clearing I had fallen into was filled with blood. I could smell it. I could taste it in the air and I could see it flowing from the bodies—so many bodies—lying in my line of sight. It was wolf's blood, and human's blood, spilled from friends and fathers. _

_There was another pulse of agony from the world I had fallen out of. I closed my eyes against the sight of so much death and embraced it. The pain was real. This sight was not. I was in one of Alice's visions. I knew that just as surely as I looked around and knew exactly what was fueling the pyre in the corner of the clearing. The russet fur of a wolf, turned black with blood in the moonlight. The delicate white fingers protruding from beneath the kindling, the ring on the left hand glinting through the flames that engulfed it. It was Alice's wedding ring. Alice was burning. Alice…_

Alice.

Alice was talking. Calling my father's attention like he was a wandering toddler.

"Charlie? Can you see what we are? Can you see what we would do?"

"Can you save her?" My father's voice, as if from far away. I concentrated on staying awake for my father. The alternative—slipping away from the pain—was so much more inviting than I'd ever thought it would be.

"We can if we do it now, but she won't be the same, Charlie? Do you understand?"

He blinked, confused. "Will she be alive?"

"She'll be…like us."

Another convulsion racked my body. I felt myself begin to tremble; felt the claws of icy shock that dug into my shoulder and my chest, but I didn't cry out this time. There wasn't breath enough for that. I could only grab the pale hand offered me and wait for a suddenly uncertain end to come.

"Now!" Rosalie snapped, the urgency overshadowing her reluctance for a fraction of a second. "I won't do this if she's further gone than I was."

Edward's entire form jerked in frustration, and I saw what I needed etched clearly into his expression. He would not let that happen. He could deal with his conscience later. My soul had come in second place. The decision that formed on his face seemed to convince my father as well. He stared at Edward, pleading and intense with the morning sun lighting tear brimmed eyes.

"Save her," he said, his voice trembling. "Any way you can. She's your wife now. She's my baby. Please just…just do whatever you can."

_Anything in your power._

If Carlisle recognized the connection, he did not show it. If Charlie noticed the diamonds that glistened in the beautiful faces all around him as the sun turned my in-laws into angels, he did not show it either.

I choked again, one last racking cough, and the movement made my breath stop entirely. It did not start again. I struggled, for only a moment, to draw an impossible breath, and then gave up. This was it—the point at which my fate ceased to be my own. I gripped Edward's hand as tight as I could, and watched the trees on the edge of my vision begin to spin...to fade.

I heard, as if from a distance, Alice leading Charlie away toward the porch. I saw the wolves through a thickening curtain of grey, forming their circle around me—not shielding me from my fate now, but Charlie from what was about to happen to me. None of them were watching as the three that were left by my side closed in. All lupine heads were turned away in disgust as Rosalie took the wrist of my left arm. Carlisle bent to my neck—to the side that wasn't torn open, but his eyes, and everything else around me, was overshadowed by Edward's angelic face as he leaned into the strange light that seemed to be gathering in my mind more than anywhere else.

"Hold on, Bella. Don't leave me now," he whispered, and bent to kiss my lips. I could no longer sense his mouth on mine, but I felt the kiss turned warm…become a sting, and then the world went white.

_Pure white._

_White like the snow that was falling over corpses in the clearing. White like the skin of those who were burning away in the fire. _

This is it. This is her death. _Professional. Anticipating._

She'll be awake in three minutes. _Bright with reassurance._

"_Bella, can you hear me?"_

_It was a voice, not a thought, which broke through the night sky and jerked me away from the wintery apocalypse that I had fallen into—back into the world where my body was on fire. Except, as I emerged again, I realized that there was no fire left in me. There was no pain at all. No need to force a cry through mangled lungs. No need to even draw a breath. _

_My ears were full of a sad, unsteady rhythm, and I realized that it was my own heartbeat—louder now, and slower than I had ever heard it before. As I listened, still motionless in a shroud of white cotton, my human heart stuttered, stumbled, and ceased to beat again. There was no great trauma…no cardiac paddles for me. Only a quiet death in the end, and the sound of my final heartbeat echoed in the memory of a roomful of witnesses._

_The silence lengthened…intensified._

_I wondered, in that frozen moment, if something had gone wrong. I felt nothing different. I felt nothing at all. Perhaps I had died—really died—after all. And then the clouds parted from my memory, and my consciousness expanded._

Exploded_. _

_Everything rushed in at once—scents that seemed to linger on my tongue. Sounds that came in colors, and a multitude of voices, painting a million pictures that I could see and feel even though my eyes were still closed tightly, and my arms remained pinned to my sides. _

"_Bella?" Edward's hands held mine firmly. "Open your eyes. Can you do that?"_

_His voice was still the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. That, at least, had not changed. His words were tinged with awe—with worry and desire. They echoed in his mind and the minds of everyone around him, urging me to move…willing me to wake and to take my place among them all. _

_And so, at last, I opened vampire eyes._


End file.
